DEMAND IS rising for vintage cameras, especially those that can still be used. Top photo: A Sutton panoramic camera from the 1860s sold in May 2006 for $52,000. (Photograph by Christie’s); Bottom photo: Frederic Ives’ Kromskop camera, circa 1900, could make three simultaneous exposures. (The History of Photography as seen through the Spira Collection.)

Antique cameras appeal on a number of levels and for a variety of reasons. Some aficionados are fascinated by the elaborate mechanisms used to produce an image. Others appreciate the simple beauty of a traditional wooden camera. Still others look to camera collecting as a method for traveling back through time because the history of photography has always been aligned with important events. "Photography allows us to record the human experience, and that obviously has a significant impact on how we look at history because we are able to see it," says Jonathan B. Spira, a collector in New York. For Spira, chairman and chief analyst with Basex, a research and consulting firm, the lure is also personal. He was born into a family of camera enthusiasts. His grandfather was an award-winning amateur photographer in Vienna, and his father, Fred Spira, founded Spirotone, once one of the largest suppliers of photo accessories in the United States. Jonathan Spira grew up in a house full of cameras, and remembers a childhood when famous photographers were always visiting.

Michael Pritchard, director of photographic auctions at Christie’s, considers the Spira collection one of the world’s finest: It numbers approximately 200,000 items and includes cameras and camera equipment, along with photographs and photographic ephemera. "My father’s collecting philosophy—which I’ve inherited—is to look at the history of photography as a flowing timeline and to understand how photography and the world interacted," Spira says.

Early Exposure
Serious collectors covet the daguerreotype cameras above all others (see "Distant Mirrors"). Produced beginning about 1840, daguerreotype cameras are distinguished by their mechanism: A sliding box inside the camera allows the image to be focused on a ground-glass screen; the daguerreotype is then exposed on a specially made plateholder. Early daguerreotype photography was a dangerous process that exposed the photographer to mercury and iodine vapors. These early cameras were produced in extremely limited quantities, but at a level of craftsmanship more akin to a fine piece of furniture than to the mass-produced consumer cameras of today. "The irony is that the most interesting cameras are plain, boring wooden boxes that most people in the 19th century considered old technology," Spira says. "It would be like us hanging on to an old Pentium II PC."

L’ESCOPETTE CAMERA, circa 1890, features a walnut pistol grip that is part of a tripod. (The History of Photography as seen through the Spira Collection.)

Such pieces are not only beautiful, but quite rare. "I’ve heard that there are only around 200 daguerreotype cameras in the world, and I have three, so I feel fairly fortunate," says Bob Kulinski, president of the United Way in Akron, Ohio. Original daguerreotype cameras typically sell for between $5,000 and $6,000, but can go as high as $200,000 or more for an original Giroux, made by the first commercially viable camera manufacturer. Among the priced items in Kulinski’s collection are a four-lens Simon Wing model camera, circa 1887, valued at between $3,000 and $4,000; a quintessential American daguerreotype camera design, circa 1848, with chamfered front and rear panels, possibly produced by C.C. Harrison of New York, a similar version of which recently sold at auction for $14,000; and a late-period unmarked daguerreotype, probably produced by W.J. Lewis at a factory in New Windsor, N.Y., referred to as "Daguerreville," valued at $8,500 to $9,500.

The 19th century saw fantastic experimentation in camera design. Lacking the standard specifications that we take for granted today, manufacturers created many one-of-a-kind devices. They tried various folding mechanisms to enable more images on a single plate, unusual shutter assemblies to increase shutter speed, and cameras built in two components joined by a bellows to achieve a greater range of focus. Pritchard estimates that approximately 10,000 of these have survived and can usually be found in the range of $2,000 to $30,000. When rarity aligns with prime condition, prices can soar. In May 2006, Christie’s sold a Sutton Panoramic made in 1860 for $52,000.

The Spira collection includes such prized items as a circa 1890 Albert Darier L’Escopette camera made by E.V. Boissonas in Geneva. It boasts a walnut box body with a walnut pistol grip; the grip and two small brass front legs serve as a tripod. It is one of the first cameras to use roll film. Another item, the Ives’ Kromskop triple view, three-color camera, from around the turn of the 20th century, represents a model of American ingenuity. It received a patent for its unique prism lens system that allowed for three simultaneous color separation exposures.