Camera [Butcher's Royal Mail Stamp]
Maker and role
W. Butcher & Sons Limited, Manufacturer
Production date
1907
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Object detail
Accession number
1965.455
Description
"Royal Mail Stamp" camera, multi-lens (15). This camera produced 15 stamp-size photographs on a single quarter plate which was exposed by a sliding shutter worked by pulling the knob on top of the camera.
Brief History
The Royal Mail Stamp camera, manufactured from 1907 to 1915, is described as a ‘novelty’ by the manufacturer, W Butcher & Sons, in a 1907 advertisement. With 15 lenses, all exposed simultaneously when the shutter is drawn, the camera took 15 identical postage-stamp sized photographs on one quarter plate. The body of the camera is divided into 15 boxes, corresponding to the lenses. It is a simple multiplying camera, allowing cost-effective duplication of a photographic image, for example a portrait, for uses such as ‘cartes-de-visite.’ A 1914 advertisement shows the camera mounted on a baseboard with an easel, on which an image could be placed to be photographed.
Marks
BRITISH MADE / WB / & / SONS / LONDON Maker's Mark
ROYAL MAIL Label
ROYAL MAIL Label
Credit Line
W. Butcher & Sons Limited. 1907. Camera [Butcher's Royal Mail Stamp], 1965.455. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
Related exhibitions
![[15 images on a glass plate negative]; W. Butcher & Sons Limited; 1906](https://collection.motat.nz/records/images/medium/3708/3c69fe401d26adc2ec6f64db21f068d84f6296b1.jpg)
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