Does anyone know what this is?

[MkII]

I have a piece of old camera equipment. It came to me from my grandfather, probably from his father before him. It is just under 2 feet long and has been living under a green surgical sheet with a sticker on it stating "Pinhole enlarger, 1890s". Given that it has a lens, I'm not so sure this is accurate.

Can anyone shed any light on the matter?

Thanks, Mark

 

[BMbikerider]

I have seen something similar but it was about 50 years ago and made of Bakelite plastic. What I saw was a fixed focus enlarge (Yes I did say enlarger!) The negative went in at the top and the paper was slid in at the bottom using a light tight drawer and then exposed to the daylight or to a tungsten bulb so the light shone through the negative, via the simple meniscus lens onto the paper. It was made for fixed size enlargements on either 3.5"x5.5" or 3.5"x5" size of paper, I am not exactly sure.

I may be wrong but it certainly looks like it to me. I think they were made by the UK company Patterson

 

[MkII]

That's helpful, thanks. It sounds like this is an earlier version of the one you saw.