Novelty wooden camera from the early 20th century. A finger jointed mahogany box with multiple lenses - possibly a toy camera. The 15 lenses produced 15 separate images on an already small 1/4 plate glass plate. This plate would then be contact printed to a pre-perforated sheet of printing paper producing a sheet of individualised black and white stamps. These are very rare, so much so that they have been faked. This is genuine, serial number 152 stamped on the inner 15 hole septum block.

Butcher produced a number of larger multiple image cameras, as did other makers, so the principle was well understood by 1905. W. Butcher & Sons survived for many years, joining forces at times with other major English manufactirers such as Houghton and Ross.

Andrews' Antipodean Photographic Emporium

Rare Cameras > Butcher Royal Mail stamp camera 1905 (5) > Butcher Royal Mail