James's Camera Collection: Kodak No. 2 Folding Pocket Brownie Model B

Kodak No. 2 Folding Pocket Brownie Model B USA Other Canon Cameras 35mm cameras
Kodak No 2 Folding Pocket Brownie B
Film type: Roll film size 120 (2 ¼ x 3 ¼ inches)
Approx. dates of manufacture: 1907 - 1915
Film size: 120
Approx. street value: low

This is the most valuable camera in my collection, but only to me. If I had save two cameras from a fire, it would be this one and my original Canon AE-1, which was a gift from my parents. And this one would take precedence because I've got more AE-1s. This was my paternal grandmother's camera, and she got it new so it's been in my family for a century now. It's famous in my family as the camera my father "fixed" as a child by oiling the shutter with sewing machine oil (tip: shutters don't like oil. They're like watches, they like tiny dabs of special lubricants that stay put), and my grandmother paid $10 to have it cleaned, which was probably what the camera was worth at the time. I don't know how she acquired it.

I recently found that I was confusing this camera with my Kodak No. 2 Autographic Brownie, despite the fact that the Autographic folds vertically (portrait style) and this one has no Autographic door on the back and folds horizontally (landscape style); they both have the old-style square corners, and they're both about the same size and weight. So I had the Autographic on display and this one in a bottom of a box where it was collecting a thick layer of dust. Hopefully my grandmother will forgive me.

According The Brownie Camera Page, mine is from 1913-1915, as mine has black bellows (instead of maroon) and a long baseboard hinge.

Camera manual: Orphan Cameras.com

More information: The Brownie Camera Page

 

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