AMATEUR EQUIPMENT NO. 1

E. & H. T. Anthony & Company, New York 1887-1890

From Anthony's Illustrated Catalogue, January, 1888

Anthony's Amateur Outfits make their appearance as early as 1882, as shown in their Revised Illustrated Price List of Anthony's Amateur Equipments, June 10, 1882.

This Amateur Equipment No. 1 with a hinged focusing screen is seen in Anthony's Illustrated Catalogue, August, 1887. Prior to this, the focusing screen was detachable as seen in engravings from Anthony's Illustrated Catalogue, September, 1886. The camera's solid bed feature appears to follow through its entire production. The bed on this example is stamped with the patent dates of May, 18, 1886 (Patent No. 342,211 granted to William H. Lewis & Erastus B. Barker), February 20, 1883 (Patent No. 272,622 granted to Erastus B. Barker) and November 11, 1884 (Patent No. 307,965 granted to William H. Lewis & Erastus B. Barker), all patents being assigned to E. & H.T. Anthony & Company of New York. The camera shown here is equipped with its correct Anthony "EA" trademark single achromatic lens.

Anthony's Amateur Outfits would continue to be offered through at least 1890, seen in an advertisement in Anthony's The International Annual, Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, Volume III, 1890-91. By May, 1891, they had been replaced by Anthony's Eureka School Outfit for beginners.

Although among their most inexpensive and basic products, the cameras from Anthony's Amateur Outfits are some of the rarest today. Amateur outfits by other manufacturers are rare as well, most often due to their cheap construction resulting in a low survivability rate. In Anthony's case however, as seen with this example, it was well built with solid materials and would have held up much better than its counterparts.