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Pony Premo E, c.1898 |
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Rochester Optical Company
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The Pony Premo E is a leather covered 4 x 5 inch format, folding-plate camera made of polished mahogany. Like the Sears Plate Camera, it is interesting because the shutter is "concealed" inside a carefully crafted wood lens board. The concealed-shutter lens board does not have a high gloss polish but has a nice decorative window-pane look. According
to an 1898 Rochester Optical Company catalogue entry, the camera sold for $8, or about $164 in year 2000 currency.
Concealed-shutter folding-plate cameras are somewhat scarce compared to
others with external lens/shutter assemblies. This was possibly due to the amount of laborious "hand-fitting" required to assemble the shutter inside the polished lensboard and that the shutter was very limited -- having only one speed.
This
camera was purchased in 1898 for family photos. The owner was a long shoreman who worked at the Jersey City docks in Secacus, NJ. |
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Turning the brass knob below the lens to either the right or left tensions the shutter. The shutter blade has a small "L" or "R"
engraved on it to remind the photographer which direction to turn the shutter tensioning knob for the next exposure. |
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