British Vintage Stereoscopy — Viewer
CAMERASCOPE
A catalogue entry from the collection
| Name | Camerascope |
| Manufacturer | Camerascopes Limited, London |
| Date Period | circa 1925-late 1930s (approx) |
| Materials | Steel, glass lenses |
| Format | Black and white gloss prints (mainly) |
Camerascope viewer.
Instructions for use.
Original box - gold branding rather faded.
This small folding stereo print viewer was invented in the early 1920s by the German Stereo-Indupor company. They also released a camera, and packs of photos - nudes, commercial and travel scenes etc - under the Indupor name which are not easy to find today.
Wait wait wait - why am I talking about a German viewer on a site about British viewers?! Because...Stereo-Indupor licenced the design to several companies in several countries - including Camerascopes Limited of London (sometimes referred to as “The Camerascope Company”), formed in 1925 and finally dissolved in 1948 and it is these I will be focusing on. What doesn’t seem to be known is whether they were actually manufactured here under licence by Camerascopes Ltd, or (perhaps more likely) in Germany by Stereo-Undupor FOR Camerascopes Ltd, who acted as a London based distributor. Either way, from all the evidence available, they were responsible for all camerascope viewers in the UK - they just didn't invent it themselves.
Compatible views here in the UK were sold by Camerascopes Ltd, Sunbeam Tours Ltd, and Cavanders Cigarettes, during a roughly 10 year period from the mid 1920s to the later 1930s; all were black and white glossy photographs. Branding for these never appeared on the viewer itself. The viewer was always referred to as the “Camerascope”, so it seems likely that Sunbeam and Cavanders sourced their viewers directly from Camerascopes Ltd as cheaply as possible. Branding more often appeared on commercial sets - used by companies to show off, for example, their factories at the time - these often will have the name of the company on the viewer.
The viewer came with several small variations enabling it to accommodate different size views but is essentially a distinctive folding design, held in place when open by springs. To view, you hold it up to your eyes with your nose through the front hole designed for that purpose! Then to focus you just move the front and back of the viewer a little as necessary. It works very well - just perhaps make sure nobody takes a photo of you while you're doing it! Made of black painted pressed steel with good quality glass lenses, most had a “crackle glaze” finish and enamelled edges, and were built to last; they still appear regularly on ebay in the UK especially, fairly cheaply. The viewer would be unlikely to pass health and safety regulations for new products today however - the edges can still feel rather hard on the fingers while prising the viewer open, so some care should be taken. You will find some stamped with Stereo-Indupor’s UK patent number (173849) but most of mine don’t actually have it.
As I said, there are small variants - some have a solid metal back and seem geared for the larger view size only - ie the views published by Sunbeam Tours and Camerascopes Ltd themselves. Then there are those designed to view 3 different sizes of cigarette card. Some of these have a fixed closed back, shaped to accommodate the 3 sizes, some have a fixed open back, and some have a closed but removable back(!). Why they varied the design so much seems to be lost in the mists of time. Here's an example of the changed back, designed to accommodate all 3 sizes of card. More photos of these variants can be found on the relevant Vintage Viewers website page - link at the bottom.
Back changed to accommodate cigarette card views.
The Sunbeam Tours company already had history with stereo pictures - they had previously issued stereo views in the larger “Holmes” style card format. With this newer format, they sold packets of 12,10 or 6 glossy prints in card envelopes, with each print being about 4.5” x 3.5” (inches). I've identified 77 Sunbeam Tours packets so far, most of which are travel scenes from across the world but some were more natural world or special interest (1936 coronation of King George Vl for example). All were black and white and generally good quality; the 3D in the street scenes from the “London” packet I have, for example, is quite superb. Sunbeam Tours views were available until at least 1937 - the latest one I have seen dated is of “The Aldershot Tattoo 1937”. Complete packets are not common but do appear on eBay fairly regularly, although some are of course more scarce than others. Some eBay sellers will try and sell these as individual stereo views at silly prices, so avoid those; they only came out in packets. More on Sunbeam Tours views will appear in a separate article shortly, including a list of those available that I know of.
Cigarette cards are a whole different collecting phenomena of course but stereo cigarette cards were popular for a time and a separate article on these will appear on the site with more detail in the future. As far as the Camerascope was concerned, from 1927 - 1931 Cavanders Ltd gave stereo cards away with their Army Club cigarettes brand in 3 different sizes, depending on the size of the cigarette packet or box of tobacco being sold. Collectors could then send away to Cavanders for the Camerascope they offered for sale at a discount. This was slightly modified to be able to handle all 3 sizes with ease. The largest (and least common) are on a single card, slightly smaller than the regular Cavanders and Sunbeam Tours views. Far more common were the small “Standard” size (about 2.5” x 1.5”) and “Medium” size (about 3” x 2”) cards. Both consisted of 2 separate cards, placed in the appropriate slots in the viewer. Cavanders issued sets in gloss finish black and white to start with and ended in the early 1930s with matt coloured sets. Photo quality is generally pretty sharp (more so on the black and white sets. They are pretty easy to find on eBay, inexpensive and fun to collect. There are still suppliers online who will sell you albums to store them in. More on cigarette card views will appear in a separate article shortly.
Additionally, there were views published by “Camerascopes Ltd, London” - alongside standard travel shots, their output also included “Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye“ - a viewer and 20 stereo views enclosed in a bespoke “book” design box, as well as commercial views made as promotional tools for companies - including the likes of Shredded Wheat, Spirella Corsets and “Magicoal Fires”, to name but 3. Sadly I have still to find any of these - views published by Camerascopes Ltd seem to be the hardest to find.
The original Stereo-Indupor viewer was also licensed and made in other countries as mentioned - I found a souvenir packet of views with a viewer for a Norwegian ocean liner, for example, showing scenic views of Norway. So probably used for tourist souvenirs in the travel industry elsewhere too, as well as for commercial advertising. I've not yet come across anything similar created by Camerascopes Ltd but given we also had liners sailing the oceans, and Camerascopes Ltd seem to have been adept at finding markets for their product, it's not entirely inconceivable some exist.
Finally, the English Coronet company ALSO made a viewer which looks very similar to the Stereo-Indupor/Camerascope and used the same full size format views, called the “Picturescope”. Theirs is slightly smaller, with smaller lenses, and rather than folding up is in 3 separate metal pieces which slot together, the front and back sliding to allow focus. This dates from around the 1930s period, predating their more well known viewers from the 1950s. More on this (and their other viewers) will appear on the site in the future.
Further Reading & Web Links
Image Sets To View (More to be added over time)
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