This twin lens camera was produced by the English firm of Ottewill & Co. around 1880. It is reputed to have been owned by Bernard Holterman who used the money he made from discovering the largest gold nugget in Australia to produce a panorama of Sydney harbour on huge glass plate negatives. Holtermann was a keen amateur photogrpaher but most of his best known work, like the photogrpahs of the New South wales goldfields in the 1870s was , was wactually the work of his employees Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss.

This camera is an early example of a sterescopic camera and and produced two almost identical photographs which were then placed in a viewer which enabled them to be seen three dimensionally. Quality lenses like the one in this camera made by A. Ross of London, England, were highly prized and were often attached to new camera bodies as the old ones fell into disrepair.

Stereo photography combined the work of two Victorian inventors, Sir Charles Wheatsone and Sir David Brewster who used photography to popularise their discoveries. Stereo photogrpahy became extremely popular in Australia in the 1850s where they were sold commercially in their thousands as well as being produced in their dozens by amateur photographers. Their popularity waned slightly in the 1880s but commercial companies such as Underwood and Underwood re-popularised them in the 1890s. Underwood and Underwoood documented the First World War in graphic detail and this series is one of the more prized by collectors.

Geoff Barker, 2007

This camera is part of a donation of photographic objects loaned to the museum by Kodak A/asia Pty. Ltd. in 1953. The representative at Kodak who arranged this loan was Keast Burke who had written extensively on the history of Bernard Holtermann and who was also for many years editor of the Australian Photo review. It was Keast who also provided the museum with the information about this camera once being owned by Bernard Holtermann. In 1984 Kodak donated this camera along with the rest of the colelction to the Powerhouse Museum.

Geoff Barker, 2011.

Camera, stereoscopic, sliding box type, wet plate, wood / brass / glass, Ottewill & Co, lenses manufactured by A Ross, probably used by B O Holtermann, London, England, 1860 - 1870

Stereoscopic camera with sliding dark box for focusing, two wet plate lens mounted on individual lens boards, polished wood construction. Camera manufactured by Otterwill & Co, England and the lenses manufactured by A Ross, London, England.

Includes the camera, dark slides (2) and viewing screen.

Made: Ross and Company; London, England; 1860 - 1870

Made: Ottewill & Co; London, England; 1860 - 1870

Refer to parts for marks

H10426

1860 - 1870