THE SUCCESS COMPACT VIEW
E. & H.T. Anthony & Company, New
York 1873 - 1882
Anthony's
Success Compact View is seen as early as 1872 in Anthony's catalogues.
Its name derived from the camera having a hinged-bed and a lens standard that
was partially recessed into the camera's main frame when folded. With a folded
depth of only 6 inches, the end result was a camera that was more compact than many
other field cameras of the same format.
Based on its production timeline, the Success Compact
View was a wet plate camera that transitioned into the dry plate era. Several
variations of the camera are known. The particular style of the vertical swing supports
seen on this 8x10 example, differs from the style seen on earlier production
models as depicted in Anthony's catalogues. This, together with the absence of wet
plate stains may suggest that this particular example was manufactured later in
production:
The earliest version of the camera exhibits the
English-style of construction, as seen in the engraving from Anthony's 1972
catalogue below. Nelson Wright's centrally swiveling rear frame design with a locking
knob, Patent No. 52,239 of January 23, 1866, was incorporated on this first
version and the subsequent version having a more curved swing support as seen in
the Anthony 1875 catalogue engraving below.
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
On later confirmed versions of the Success Compact, the
vertical swing is secured by a sliding knob connected to the base of the rear
frame:
Although not a part of Nelson Wright's patented design, the
camera's lateral swing was adjusted by two thumb screws located beneath the rear
frame's base support, one on each side. This feature is found on all surviving
examples seen of the Success Compact View I've encountered, although per
Anthony's 1875 catalogue, the camera could be had with a single swing, double
swing or no swing at all.
From Anthony's Illustrated Descriptive
Price List of Photographic Apparatus for 1872
From Anthony's Illustrated
Descriptive Price List of Photographic Apparatus for 1872
From
Anthony's Illustrated Price List of Photographic Apparatus for 1875
From Anthony's Illustrated Price
List of Photographic Apparatus for 1875
The wood panel
insets found on the folding bed of this example, also adds to the speculation.
These panels might suggest this camera to be of earlier production, with the
panels' disappearance on later models construed as an effort to reduce weight.
If so, it begs the question as to why they were ever incorporated from the
onset if the goal was to make a lighter camera. If the opposite is true and the
panels were added later, this would run contra to the typical progression seen in
cameras towards reducing bulk and weight over time.
This camera is equipped with an Anthony Single Achromatic "pillbox" style landscape lens having
rack-and-pinion focusing. It bears E. & H.T. Anthony's well known "EA" trademark. Several
surviving examples of the Success Compact have been seen with this lens:
Sharing prominence with the twin thumb screws to adjust
the lens board's height, the camera's other most prominent feature is the
storage compartment at the base of the lens standard. This compartment would
have been used to hold accessories:
Like many of Anthony's cameras, the Success Compact View is almost never seen today, due in a large
part to its wet plate era heritage. The survivability
rates for apparatus from the wet plate and daguerreian periods, declines exponentially
when compared to what can still be found from the late 1880's and 1890's.
Including the camera featured here, at least three confirmed
examples are known to exist in private collections.
Anthony's
Illustrated Descriptive Price List of Photographic Apparatus for 1872
Anthony's Illustrated Price List of
Photographic Apparatus for 1875
Though unconfirmed, here's another 8x10 camera that's strongly
believed to be a variant of the Success
Compact View. This is based upon its general construction, having the twin
thumb screw arrangement on the lens standard and a storage compartment. Other
than some Semmendinger models that have a similar storage compartment (which all
appear to hinge from the bottom instead of top, as on the Success Compact), the
Success Compact View is the only camera I've encountered with a twin thumb
screw lens standard:
This camera differs from the Success Compact View
featured above, having smaller thumb screws, no lateral swing, a different
style storage compartment latch, a brass-reinforced center track, a split-frame
back that's hinged at the bottom and adjusts from the top for vertical swing, and
a push/pull focusing lever with no fine-focus adjustment.