Burke and James Royalty

[jimgalli]

An oxymoron you say? Perhaps. Fancy as it is, it's no Deardorff. This came to me recently from a junk seller in the deep midwest. Now before I begin, note that I have zero provenance. I'm only making an educated guess. But here's my guess. In 1962 (catalog pages from Burke & James 1962 catalog) a person of means, some lawyer or doctor or maybe an indian chief, must have been smitten by Ansel's lovely pictures and purposed to duplicate a system that could produce like lovely things. Thus the 8X10 you see in the images. The surprise to me is that in an era of commercial drab gray cameras, I never knew that you could order the top of the line B&J camera with a lovely natural finish on the rock maple. Many have been refinished thus, but this camera gives every evidence of sitting stately in a closet since 1963.
And behold the Cooke Series XV Convertible Anastigmat in full 1960's (single coated) Betax 5 splendor! Arguably better even than Ansel's 1948 version because this one enjoys anti-reflective coatings that Ansel did not.

So that's my guess fwiw. Poo poo me all you please. To me it looks like a camera that got used 3 times and was put away. Oh, the hood on the lens. It is designed so that when the front group is removed, the hood comes off and screws back onto the shutter for control.

I ran the Burke and James 1962 prices through the inflation calculator and it came to slightly over $5000 in our $$$ current purchasing power. So if you can't live without it, that's a good place to begin ;~'))

 

[ic-racer]

Wow, what a find!

 

[AnselMortensen]

Oooh la la!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Will it set itself up, load the film holder, pull the dark slide, take the photograph, insert the dark slide, remove the film holder, and load itself and the tripod back in the car automatically?

 

[jimgalli]

Of course!

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Spectacular, what a beauty. Did you get any wood or plastic 8x10 film holders with this package? A junk dealer in the Midwest had it? It's amazing where good things end up sometimes.

 

[jimgalli]

Spectacular, what a beauty. Did you get any wood or plastic 8x10 film holders with this package? A junk dealer in the Midwest had it? It's amazing where good things end up sometimes.

Nope, just the camera.

 

[Besk]

Jim you are fortunate.

 

[David Lindquist]

Now is that ever cool. Like the tripod too, from what I can see of it.

All it needs now is a Pontiac woodie with a platform on top, or would that be too new-fangled for you what with its hydraulic brakes.

I have a 1965 B&J catalogue, it doesn't have that page on Taylor, Taylor & Hobson.

David

 

[jimgalli]

I could work with the Pontiac but by 1962 it was the Cornbinder Travelall and ……… that’s a deal breaker.

 

[David Lindquist]

Yes, in my modest collection of Ansel Adams ephemera is an issue of the International Harvester house organ "International Harvester World" from 1969 with a cover story on Adams. Cover photo shows him atop his IH Travelall with his 8 x10 on a Gitzo (Gasp! Not a Ries!) tripod.

David

 

[MTGseattle]

I like the finish on that sample a lot. I started tearing into one of these a while back. My bellows is in really good shape though, so I wimped out on removing it to do a good refinish job. All I've done are the bed and the 2 extensions.
Why the 2 slots on the rear standard carrier? moving from one to the other gets you maybe 10-12mm?

 

[Pioneer]

I could work with the Pontiac but by 1962 it was the Cornbinder Travelall and ……… that’s a deal breaker.

I had a Travelall just like the one that Ansel Adams used to own. It hauled my family, a camper and a soap box derby car all over central and northern Nevada in the early 80s. I never tried to stand on top of it though. And certainly not with a big camera on a tripod. Back then I was happily shooting a K1000. Still use it in fact. Not the Travelall, the camera.

Beautiful camera Jim. Congrats. Very nice find.

 

[reddesert]

Why the 2 slots on the rear standard carrier? moving from one to the other gets you maybe 10-12mm?

If you look through old B&J catalogs, similar cameras sometimes are shown with one centered slot, one off-center slot, or two offset slots like on this one. My speculation: if you use the forward slots, you can get the standards a little closer together for a short focal length lens. But the standard may interfere with inserting a film holder if you use any rear tilt. The rear slots lessen that interference.

 

[MTGseattle]

Ah. That theory has some logic to it.