Lot 65: NS front shutter Reflex no. 28

Sinclair Ltd., London; quarter-plate, black-leather covered body, black and nickelled-metal fittings, black-leather bellows, with a Ross, London Zeiss Tessar f/4.5 150mm. lens no. 18709 in a patent shutter and three double darkslides, in maker's fitted leather case LITERATURE British Journal Photographic Almanac 1911, pp.1006-1009; 1912, pp. 1008-1012. NOTES First announced in 1911 the NS Reflex shown bore only a passing resemblance to the actual production model that was illustrated the following year. The 1911 camera was described as 'the greatest advance in camera construction made for many years and will be welcomed by those wanting the advantages of the Reflex principle without the drawbacks inherent in the focal plane shutter'. At the time of the 1911 advertisement the camera was only noted a 'patent pending' suggesting that the design had not been fully finished. The camera was the subject of British patent 20,016 granted to Arthur S. Newman and Sinclair on 27 August 1910. It described the rotating front shutter mechanism of the camera. By 1912 advertising showed the camera as it actually appeared and described it as 'an epoch-making instrument'. The camera had been sold from 1911 only in quarter-plate and 5 x 4 inch and 9 x 12cm. sizes were ready for 1912. It was described as 'the best possible Reflex camera for the practical worker who wishes to do portraiture or general photography, other than motor races and railway trains and it places at his command opportunities for artistic work which are quite impossible with cameras of the focal plane type'. It sold for œ23 10 0 in quarter-plate. The camera does not appear to have been advertised after the first world war.