A Remarkable Survivor from the Dawn of Stereoscopic Photography

Dating from the very earliest years of stereoscopic photography, this rare Powell Stereoscopic Binocular Camera was manufactured by the celebrated London optical and photographic instrument makers Horne & Thornthwaite of Newgate Street, with the design registered on 27 December 1858.

More than 165 years later, the camera remains a fascinating example of the ingenuity that characterised the rapidly developing world of Victorian photography.

Its particularly ingenious construction makes it immediately distinctive. The wooden camera body is incorporated directly into the lid of its own carrying case. When opened, the case unfolds and extends to form a long, continuous alignment tray upon which the camera could be positioned for use. When photography was complete, the apparatus could be folded back into its compact travelling case.

The case also holds four wooden double plate holders and associated photographic accessories, offering a glimpse of the equipment required by a photographer working in the mid-19th century.

The Powell camera was available in two models for stereo photography – a single lens model and a Binocular model, both for dry plates or wet-collodion plates. This is for the former.  

Only one other example of the Binocular model is believed to have been sold back in the 1970s.