GARLAND'S NEW SKELETON SHUTTER

E.F. Garland, Lynn Massachusetts 1884 - 1889

Looking more like a Schwinn bicycle part from the 1950's, Garland's New Skeleton Shutter was built with a heavy cast frame, a spring mechanism and two sliding felt cloth blades reinforced by a wire and metal frame. The shutter was designed to be mounted externally to the front of the lens shade, and by all appearances looked cumbersome to operate. Adding to its weight and measuring about 7" x 7-1/4", it's not a small contrivance by any means.

The paper label affixed states "Regular sizes 3 and 4 Inch openings, Price: $6.00" along with Garland's name and address. The shutter was marketed through both Scovill Manufacturing Company and George Murphy in 1884. The engraving featured in Scovill's The Photographic Times and American Photographer, February, 1884 and also in George Murphy's 1884 advertisement depicting a square-shaped casing such as that found on the Low and Packard Shutters, differs from the example shown here. The shutter as depicted in the advertisement below from the Illustrated Catalogue of the Celebrated Voigtlander & Son's Portrait Lenses and Euryscopes, April, 1887, is the same as seen in the Illustrated Catalogue and Price List of A.B. Paine & Company, No. 4, 1889. This suggests that the example shown here was mid-to-late production.

Almost never seen today, the Garland can be considered rare.