History: Very early portrait petzval lens made by Jules Vogel in Philadelphia. Vogel was one of the early lensmakers who established his workshop in the early days of photography in the US. This is a really early version which doesnt feature his logo (an eagly) which was added to later models. Interestingly there is not even a rack & pinion there, and its not lost, it was never intended for this lens, since there arent any holes for screws or any traces of that. I would suspect that this is very likely one of the very first attempts of Vogel on the petzval lens design.

The engraving reads: 'VOGEL - Philadelphia, US - Sold by J. Atkinson - Liverpool'

The lens offers a focal lenght of around 200mm (or 8") and a starting aperture of F3.3 which is almost the same as the famous Dallmeyer 2B, or the very fast Voigtländer lenses. The lens shows quite some amount of petzval character and will work very well for 4x5 and 5x7 portraiture work.

Condition: Really nice authentic condition: brass shows quite some wear, still the protective laquere is mostly intact and shows a warm patina. As mentioned before there is no rack & pinion but you can move the outer sleeve by hand. The glass is very clean and features only minimal cleaning marks. Otherwise there is no haze, fungus or seperation present.

A really fine specimen of a very early production run, probably around late 1850ies or early 1860ies.

height: 15cm
width: 8.5cm
weight: 1300gr

Insured and tracked shipping cost:

Germany - 10 eur
EU* - 20 eur
Worldwide - 50 eur

*(the site offers only 2 shipping variations, DE and worldwide. buyers from EU please either contact me beforehand for a reduced EU cost, or after buying so i can send a refund over the difference)

Importent Note: This item comes from my private collection and is around 100 years old (antique). I try my best to describe all the faults and major damage which are relevant for the function of this item. But the actuall item can show signs of wear and also some cosmetic blemishes/damage which is not described in the auction text! When buying this item the buyer agrees to this terms.