A rare complete set of an early Voigtländer Portrait Petzval!

History: Very early made Voigtländer portrait petzval lens in a stunning collectors condition. The engraved serial is 11.450. That dates the lens back into the very early days of wetplate photography in 1862.

Voigtländer is the very first manufacturer who introduced the portrait petzval formula to photography in the early 1840ies. His workshop is probably the most well known and offered the best optical and built quality, which stands en par with Dallmeyer, Ross or Jamins lenses.

Condition: Really nice condition overall: the golden protective laquere is in good condition and shows only minimal wear. The rack & pinion is complete and moving. The glass shows minimal cleaning marks and some specs, but is otherwise crispy clear and shows a fantastic sharp image on the ground glass.

A fantastic piece of history of one of the most reknowed optical manufacturers of the early photographic age. The best about this specimen is that it comes with a fully working iris aperture. It is known that Voigtländer did offer installing apertures in older lenses, when the customer did send in the lens.  I think it is safe to say that this is the case here, since the aperture is very well installed and still working.

This lens has about 290mm focal lenght (11 1/2") and an open aperture of F3.6. It will work for fullplate format but actually will produce the best results on the 8x10 format, where its authentic character can be seen in the outer edges of the image field.

A really fine specimen of Voigtländer master workshop. This lens is in the same range as the (in)famous Dallmeyer 3B and has almost identical FL and stats. I even tested it once against one 3B, and i couldnt tell which of them was sharper. I guess the Voigtländer featured slightly less swirl in the background.

height: 20cm
width: 10cm
weight: 2000gr

Insured and tracked shipping cost:

Germany - 20 eur
EU* - 50 eur
Worldwide - 120 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.