Aldis-Ensign - vintage enlarger

robrover · Nov 2, 2016

I am a recent returnee to film and have collected a few medium format cameras and a 4x5 MPP MK8 over the last year. I am developing my own B&W films but don't currently have a darkroom. Instead I have managed to make one half of my garage sufficiently light proof to do contact printing after sun-down. Knowing about my new hobby a friend of mine recently gave me an ancient Aldis-Ensign enlarger. I am not sure how old it is but I'm guessing pre-war. After cleaning the optics and bodging a light source with an LED flood-lamp and a quickly fabricated negative holder out of cardboard and an acetate negative film sleeve I managed to get it working at the weekend. It is of course very crude with no iris on the lens and no filter holders but it made surprisingly good prints from 6x6 negs onto multi-grade paper.
I don't plan to use it as a serious enlarger but I'm itching to restore it. Does anyone know anything about these devices? How rare is it? I haven't seen one like it for sale on the bay of dreams or elsewhere else for that matter.
Here is a link to some photos:

robrover · Nov 2, 2016

Sorry, new to this, struggling to work out how to post a link to my Flickr album where the photos are... I will figure it out tomorrow...

Svenedin · Nov 3, 2016

I found this:

Dead Link Removed

and this:

https://ehive.com/collections/5051/objects/354228/photographic-enlarger

robrover · Apr 2, 2017

After starting this thread ages ago I have now got some pics of this ancient enlarger. I got it working by gaffer-taping an LED flood light to the top where the bulb holder goes. I improvised a negative holder from cardboard, a negative storage sleeve and gaffer tape (again!). Result, two reasonable prints on Ilford Mult-Grade... I don't know what to do with this enlarger. It is probably quite rare but I would never use it in preference to my DeVere 504! Does anyone collect these things? It would be reasonably easy to restore it.

Ian Grant · Apr 2, 2017

Nice one. I have a much earlier Houghton King enlarger, it's horizontal rather than vertical, it has the Quarter plate condensers but could take a 5x4 set. Ensign was a Houghton Trade name sometimes just the Ensign logo was used other times the name as well. Houghtons worked with Butcher swho had business links with Aldis, buying Butcher and a few years later (1923) merging them to become Houghton-Butcher. So you frequently find Aldis lenses on Ensign equipment I have an Ensign Speed Roll Film Reflex with an Aldis lens.

It's work restoring your enlarger as items like this get lost otherwise. I might have an advert for your enlarger.

Ian

robrover · Apr 2, 2017

Thanks Ian, do you have any idea how old this enlarger is? It seems to be designed for 120 6x9 negatives which were popular from the 1920's (?) onwards. I have a lot of old family negatives which were shot with 'vest pocket' type folders of that era. I'm guessing this enlarger would have been sold to enthusiasts with this type of camera?

Ian Grant · Apr 3, 2017

My guess is this is a 1920's enlarger enlarger, I think it's the one listed in a 1924 BJP Almanac Houghton advert, "Aldis-Ensign" vertical enlarger for electric light or gas, a fixed focus enlarger, there's no price or image, as being. The 8 positions for the head on the column and the similar 8 positions for the focus must be the fixed focus, not quite strictly the correct term.

Seems to be a budget enlarger as the similar format Butcher enlarger is very significantly more sophisticated and a lot more modern looking.

Ian

Ian Grant · Apr 3, 2017

Here's the advert:

Although Houghtons had fully merged with Butcher the advert would have been prepared during 1923, I'll look in other BJP Almanacs see of it's listed earlier.

Ian

Ian Grant · Apr 3, 2017

An update the 1923 BJPA has an advert for a New Invention Aldis-Ensign High Speed Vertical Enlarger with an illustration, yours is a Model V.2 and will enlarge to 14x10, the price was £17 17s 6d.

I'll scan the advert later today.

Ian

Ian Grant · Apr 3, 2017

Definitely the correct one

Ian

robrover · Apr 4, 2017

Excellent! Well researched! This is the exact model. I didn't realise it was so old. I will have to find a good home for it.

Ian Grant · Apr 4, 2017

robrover said:
Excellent! Well researched! This is the exact model. I didn't realise it was so old. I will have to find a good home for it.

Not so much research, I tend to vaguely remember things like this without any effort. It helps that I made a conscious decision a few years ago to sort of concentrate on Houghton equipment.

The first British plate camera I restored was a Houghtons Victo Quarter plate field camera, the second a Houghtons Duchess Half plate camera, then a Houghtons King enlarger. I have an Ensign Speed Roll Film Reflex and a Dallmeyer Press reflex (which is a re-badged Ensign) to restore plus a Whole plate Houghtons Victo. To complement the enlarger I've two NIB Ensign glass safe-lights and an Ensign candle powered safe-light.

Houghtons were the largest of all the UK manufacturers and dominated the market before WWII, they suffered badly during the Blitz which effectively brought an end to the original company. The sale/marketing side joined Johnsons of Hendon now Johnson Photopia which can claim to be the oldest photographic company in the world as Johnsons sold Silver Nitrate to Fox Talbot. Camera and equipment manufacture continued as Ensign, later Ross Ensign.

Ian

Aldis-Ensign - vintage enlarger

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