From the pioneering days there was the CT Crouchton 2¾ x 3¼in stereo sliding wet plate mahogany camera.
Mounted on a folding mahogany slide rail and complete with lenses, screen and six wet plate stereo backs, it was estimated at £2000-3000 but sold to a European collector at £9500.
Another European collector at the Stoke Newington specialist sale on October 1 went to £17,000 to secure a Hugo Meyer Kino Plasmat lens estimated at £5000-7000.
While cameras played a major part in the 580-lot sale which totalled £275,000, medical and scientific instruments made a significant contribution, starting with the first lot offered. This was a c.1891, exhibition Dick Petrological microscope, signed to the brass foot J Swift & Son, London.
Standing 21in (52cm) tall, the specialist instrument for the study of rocks featured innovations including the Swift 2in (5cm) patent mechanical stage and the ‘Dick’ rotating mechanism developed by Allan Dick in 1890. Pitched at £3000-5000, it sold to an American collector at £6800.
