THE M&H NONAPREIL CAMERA
Miller & Company, 442 & 444 Fulton
Street, Brooklyn, New York 1890
Field camera marketed
by Miller & Company of Brooklyn,
New York, offered in sizes 3-1/4 x 4-1/4, 4x5, 5x7 and 6-1/2 x 8-1/2.
Miller &
Company, formerly Miller & Hopkins, was a photographic supply house. At least two advertisements have been seen
for the company in E. & H.T. Anthony & Company's The International Annual of Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, Volume
III, 1890, and in Scovill's The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for
1890 seen below:
From Scovill's The American Annual of Photography and
Photographic Times Almanac for 1890
The M&H Nonapreil Camera appears in a
16-page catalogue from Miller & Company titled Photographic Specialties and copyrighted 1890:
From
Miller & Company's Photographic Specialties, copyright 1890
From Miller & Company's
Photographic Specialties, copyright 1890
The catalogue confirms
that Miller & Company private-branded at least some of their apparatus and
supplies, as reflected in their "M&H
Compactum Shutter" which was actually Hopkins' Pneumo Shutter:
From Miller & Company's
Photographic Specialties, copyright 1890
Ad from Scovill's
The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for 1891
As depicted in
the engraving, this M&H Nonapreil
Camera's construction resembles the European-style of field camera with its
fixed vertical front, folding bed and tapered bellows. With Miller &
Company having been a distributor and known to have private-branded some American
products, they may have also marketed foreign products under their own label.
Cameras either made or sold by Miller & Company are not listed in McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and
Classic Cameras 12th Edition 2005-2006, or seen in any other camera
collecting reference book that I'm aware of.
Pending more information,
the camera's 1890 production date is based solely on the Miller catalogue's
copyright. And in reality, production
may have preceded or succeeded this date. But with no trade journal references or
advertisements found to help narrow its timeline, this all suggests that the
M&H Nonapreil Camera along with Miller & Company's other cameras and
products was very short-lived.
Like many
obscure cameras that were briefly produced by smaller companies during the
early 1890's, the M&H Nonapreil
Camera will be hard to locate. Having
been offered in four different sizes, though, may increase the odds of finding
one. Collectors of American apparatus might typically pass over this camera
given the style, not realizing that it was marketed here under an American
name.
For more
information on two detective cameras also sold by Miller & Company, look
for "The $5.00 Detective
Camera" and the "M&H
Popular Detective Camera" under the "Antique Cameras" section of this website.