THE FAIRY CAMERA

E. & H.T. Anthony & Company, New York 1884-1898

5x8

The Fairy Camera was an upscale version of Anthony's Novelette Camera, having nickel-plated fittings and a center-geared track with rack-and-pinion focusing.

Reportedly introduced in July,1884, advertisements for the Fairy appear by December,1884 in The Philadelphia Photographer, and in Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, Volume XV,1884. Both standard (square front) and stereoscopic (oval or rounded front) versions were available from the onset. Initially, the Fairy was offered in mahogany only from 1884 through at least December, 1886. As reflected in Anthony's Illustrated Catalogue of Amateur Photographic Equipments and Materials, January, 1888, the mahogany construction was now replaced by Circassian walnut, and this is how the Fairy would be offered through the end of production in 1898.

Design elements seen in Anthony's Fairy Camera can be found under at least three patents. These same patents also applied to some of Anthony's other field cameras, most notably to their Novel/Novelette series:

Patent No. 255,567 was granted to Erastus B. Barker on March 28, 1882, for a rotating front and rear frame design to facilitate both vertical and horizontal formats, and a center track-mounted fine focusing knob. Barker, of New York and later New Jersey, was granted at least twelve photographic patents. Many of these, including this one, were assigned to the E. & H.T. Anthony & Company of New York:

Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Patent No. 272,622 was granted to Erastus B. Barker on February 20, 1883 and assigned to the E. & H.T. Anthony & Company of New York. The patent covered the rotating bellows and a fine focusing mechanism of a different style:

Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Patent No. 307,965 was granted to William H. Lewis and Erastus B. Barker on November 11,1884, and assigned to the E. & H.T. Anthony & Company of New York. Like Barker, Lewis enjoyed a long relationship with Anthony, having granted at least eighteen patents to the company over a ten-year period. This patent covered the brass corner clamps to retain the ground glass, a revised frame to accept the plate holder and the hook-style clamps used to secure the folding bed:

Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

As depicted in the drawings for Patent No. 272,622, the camera was focused via a rod running from front to back. A connection to the rod at the base of the rear frame permitted the frame to be slid and fixed for an approximate focus. Then, rotating a fixed knob that encompassed a threaded section at the rod's back end, permitted for fine focusing.

This rod focusing design appears to have been abandoned in favor of a center-mounted rack-and-pinion arrangement, as seen under Patent No. 307,965. Once the rear frame was racked out, the focus was set with a binding screw located next to the focus knob. It's this rack-and-pinion design which is seen in Anthony's advertisements, and on every surviving example of the Fairy I've ever encountered.

The Fairy is also seen with three different focusing knob styles. Two of these knobs are large and knurled, of which the first style having a circular groove is believed to be the earliest version:

The second style knurled knob has a radiused face:

The last style resembles a "ship's wheel":

The knurled knob versions appear to be earlier, especially the grooved style having been depicted in the first advertisements seen for the camera in 1884 through at least January,1889. In Anthony's Illustrated Catalogue of Photographic Equipments and Materials for Amateurs, May,1891, both the grooved knurled knob and "ship's wheel" styles appear, and would continue to be depicted in their catalogue engravings for the Fairy through February,1898. Despite the knurled knobs being earlier, they are the style most Fairy Cameras are seen with today.

Aside from the standard square-shaped lens standard, the Fairy was also available in a stereoscopic version having an internal septum. These stereoscopic versions are readily identifiable by their oval-shaped fronts having a wider lens board to accommodate stereoscopic lenses or shutters:

From Anthony's Illustrated Catalogue of Amateur Photographic Equipments and Materials, January, 1891

An example of a Fairy having the stereoscopic front, can be found under the "Antique Cameras" section of this website.

The 5x8 example seen here is constructed of Circassian walnut, being equipped with a "ship's wheel" style focusing knob and a Gundlach Optical Company 5x8 lens. This camera's rather unique feature is the two glass ampule levels mounted to the back frame and to the lens standard. This style of level was not depicted in Anthony's catalogues, but they're nicely crafted and quite functional:

Despite being manufactured for nearly fourteen years, relatively few Fairy Cameras are seen today. Their premium features and beautiful construction rank them highly among collectors.

Another example of the Fairy Camera in 4-1/4 x 6-1/2, can be seen at the bottom of this web page.

Fairy Camera 5x8 (Circassian walnut)