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"The Sunart Photo Company was founded in
1893 at 1 Aqueduct Street [Rochester, NY ],
and it continued in that location until
1899. They made a novel magazine camera, but
it was not particularly successful, and in
1899 its assets were acquired by a vigorous
group of men who were establishing the
Seneca Camera Company at 248 Mill Street.
The new company was incorporated in 1900
with a capital of $25,000. The first
officers were Frank T. Day, a superintendent
at Kodak Camera Works, president; William C.
Whitlock, vice-president; and Lorin E.
Mason, a hardware merchant at 348 State
Street, secretary and treasurer. The new
company quickly became established as one of
the most successful camera manufacturers in
the country."
So writes Rudoplh Kingslake in his
dissertation on the early American
photographic companies.
This style of folding camera was made in
rather significant numbers from about 1890
thru 1910. Manufacturers such as Rochester
Optical, who sold the "Premo" series of
cameras; Rochester Camera, who marketed the
"Poco" camera line; Kodak, Century Camera,
Gundlach, Manhattan Optical, Ray Camera,
Korona, Anthony, Seroco, Seneca and many
other small camera houses - all participated
in selling rather inexpensive, easy to
carry, plate cameras for the large amateur
photographer market. However, due to the
fact that Sunart ( what a great name for a
camera company ! ), was only in business for
six years, Sunart cameras are generally
difficult to locate today. For every
"Sunart" camera you'll find on ebay or at
local shows, you'll probably encounter
thirty "Premo" cameras along the way.
Although the scarcity of the Sunart cameras
should be reflected in higher prices than
other manufacturers, that is typically not
the case. This type of camera is generally
valued for its pure aesthetic pleasure
rather than as a serious photographic tool.
Everyone from crusty old camera collectors
to wide eyed "newbies," find these cameras
to be the "eye candy" of the camera
collecting world. Because of that fact,
collectors typically lump them all into one
bucket in terms of value. In addition,
because of their beautiful features,
condition has an enormous impact on their
value. Pristine examples generally fetch
anywhere from $ 150 to $ 225 depending on
the features and manufacturer; while cameras
in fair condition ( possibly with a missing
carrying strap, and/or torn exterior leather
) run about $ 75 to $ 100. A camera with
black bellows, as opposed to red, commands a
lower premium, as it tends to detract from
the beauty of the rest of the camera. Since
these cameras folded themselves up into a
box, the interiors are almost always found
to be in excellent condition - its the
exterior that absorbs the ravages of time.
The construction of this camera was
commonly referred to as a "cycle" style.
This termed was used because bicycles were a
popular and common way for the average
American to get around town as well as
parade through the country with. This type
of camera, when folded up and closed, was
quite small and light - perfect to carry
around on a bicycle trip.
The majority of these cameras were
built almost identically. The commonly found
size is 4 x 5 inches. The next most common
would be 5 x 7, followed by 8 x 10. The
larger sizes are far more scarce than the 4
x 5, because if a person could afford the
larger sized cycle camera, they could also
afford the far more versatile and better
made, all wood traditional view cameras of
the day.
The cameras were constructed of wood
with the exterior of the camera having a
pebble grained leather covering ( or
"leather-like" material ), and almost always
displayed a polished cherry or mahogany wood
interior. The metal trim of the camera was
commonly done in brass or nickel, and the
tapered leather bellows were black or bright
cherry red. The lens, on all but the
cheapest models, was generally a four
element, rapid rectilinear type lens. Bausch
and Lomb ( "B&L" ) supplied many of
these lenses to most of the manufacturers of
the time. The shutter was also commonly
supplied by B&L or Wollensak. B&L's
most frequently encountered shutter was
called the "Unicum," while the Wollensak
frequently supplied the "Uno" shutter. Many
sellers of these cameras would not
necessarily manufacture the actual camera.
Very often, one company would manufacturer
and assemble the camera, and the camera
house would label the camera their
particular brand name. For example, the
Seroco line of cameras were sold by Sears,
Roebuck and Co. ( "SE-RO-CO" ), yet they
were all manufactured by other company's
such as Rochester Optical. Sears, to this
day, still practices this type of renaming
of products produced by other firms.
These cameras were generally
affordable to most people. Priced anywhere
from $ 8 to $ 14, depending on the number of
features and options, these cameras were
marketed heavily to the consumer who dreamed
of becoming the next William Henry Jackson.
The cheapest versions of these cameras had a
very simple, meniscus lens (one element),
combined with a simple shutter featuring one
to four different speeds. Although this low
level camera seems rather spartan to us
today, having used this camera in actual
practice, the 4x5 negative size really makes
up for any inadequacies in the simple lenses
utilized. The high-end, cycle camera would
have featured a well known lens of the day,
such as the German "Dagor" or Zeiss
Anastigmat lens, in a B&L shutter
featuring a full range of shutter speeds
from 1/100 of a second, down to 1 second
with Time and Bulb. A 4 x 5 camera, with
these options could run as high as $
25-30.
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