History: Ross lenses were well know and highly regarded among the early photographic and still are by wet palte community. Its image quality is on the same level as the Dallmeyer 3B or the Voigtländer Portrait series. The lens is engraved with:

'A. Ross - London - 2651'

This is one of the very few very early Portrait lenses that were sill made under A. Ross in the 1860ies. Actually those lenses were later used by H.J. Dallmeyer as models for his very famous Dallmeyer 3B patent lenses.

Condition: The brass looks really good here, there is only minor wear and signs of use. The rack & pinion is complete, and still working. It comes with a waterhouse, that seems to have been retrofitted at a later point, which confirms its age. The glass looks clean and shows no haze or fungus, there are some cleaning marks here and there and a some edge chips to the rear element, but i testmounted the lens and they dont affect the image quality at all.

The lens has a focal lenght of 300mm and it will cover 5x7 and 8x10  with distinct petzval characteristic on the ground glass. The starting aperture of F3.5 will give you a fantastic shallow DOF and a short exposure time, to be able to do fantastic portrait shots.


Lens comes with a fitting flange.



height: 18cm
width: 9cm
weight: 2200gr

Insured and tracked shipping cost:


EU* - 50 eur
Worldwide - 90 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.