Once upon a time, long before Sears, Roebuck & Company had Kenmore appliances and Craftsman tools, Sears sold polished wood and brass cameras such as the example shown here. The Sears Plate Camera is a 4 x 5" leather covered folding-plate camera made of polished mahogany.

The most interesting feature is a shutter mounted inside a highly polished mahogany lens board. Turning a brass knob below the lens to either the right or left tensions the shutter. The shutter blade has a small arrow engraved on it to remind the photographer which direction to turn the shutter tensioning knob.

The rising / falling, concealed-shutter lens board is a marvelous piece of craftsmanship beveled edges and brass hardware. This particular camera is similar to the Pony Premo E by the Rochester Optical Company. 

Concealed-shutter folding-plate cameras are somewhat uncommon 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 lens board and that the shutter was very limited; having only one speed. The lens is a single-achromatic Meniscus formula.

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Sears priced the camera lower than competitors at $3.75, equivalent to $146 in 2026 currency.

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09-2026: Special thanks to Jon Coffman (Sears, Roebuck & Co. camera expert) for pointing out this camera's model name. Jon also gave permission to include an excerpt from his book that has fascinating insights about the company's competitive camera marketing. Follow this Link to Jon's excerpt.