J J Atkinson "Eclipse" Camera

Atkinson, John James. | "Eclipse" | Field Camera | 1891 | Half Plate.
Catalogue No.0240.
Labelled "J. J. Atkinson, 37, Manchester Street, Liverpool.", this mahogany camera with dark burgundy, square-cornered bellows and dovetailed joints, answers to the description of their "Eclipse" camera, which they advertised in 1891. The folding method is unusual in having the lens board supports permanently situated in their slides, in which they are slid back to the camera body for folding. In the British Journal of Photography, of August 19th, 1888: Birkenhead Photographic Association. (Report of meeting on 11th August, held in The Free Public Library.) "The Secretary exhibited a number of Muybridge's latest specimens of instantaneous photography, kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. J. J. Atkinson, of Manchester Street, Liverpool, which excited great interest.....Mr. Muybridge being shortly expected in England." Eadweard Muybridge, the famous pioneering photographer of animal motion, did not arrive in Britain from America until January 1890. He was hosted on the Liverpool leg of his lecture tour by J. J. Atkinson.