For the uninitiated, I have the good fortune of living in the Nevada Desert and working on a certain plot of land carefully guarded by the US Gov't. As time went by and I occasionally sold ecclectic lenses, certain folks began to speculate that there was a "lens Mine" where all this wonderfulness was being un-earthed. Hence, I had to set the record straight and tell the real truth, that I have befriended certain beings that aren't exactly from our solar system, for lack of a better moniker, the Little Green Men. Or, if you will allow it, the LGM's.
As luck would have it, the LGM's and I have come to an arrangement where, to save notice from certain busybody's in Southern California who have big telescopes and bigger imaginations, we use time travel, so when they go out and about, they do it in another time, usually 1940's, but sometimes all the way back to the 1880's.
The other arrangement we have, since I hold as it were the key to them getting to go out on a gad-a-bout, is that while they're gone, they can jolly well find me some ecclectic antique lenses and bring them back.
It seems to be a win win, although I have no idea where they dig this stuff up. So this weekend they came back with a BUNCH of neat stuff! Petzval's! Convertibles! APO's! Be sure to check every sale as they get listed.
So to start things off, here's a sweeeet little Petzval from about 100+ years ago. This says Conley, which I think was the Monkey Wards House name, but make no mistake, it is a Wolly product. Check out the catalog link above.
The glass on this is just superb. Unbelievable really. Aperture is the old US style. 2 4 8 16 32 64 etc. f16 is the anchor. It's the same in both systems. So you have to count stops forward or backward from f16 to get to our modern equivalents.
People are going coo coo for these on Ebay. I've seen lantern Petzvals with no aperture go for $900! Give me $425 for this one.
As luck would have it, the LGM's and I have come to an arrangement where, to save notice from certain busybody's in Southern California who have big telescopes and bigger imaginations, we use time travel, so when they go out and about, they do it in another time, usually 1940's, but sometimes all the way back to the 1880's.
The other arrangement we have, since I hold as it were the key to them getting to go out on a gad-a-bout, is that while they're gone, they can jolly well find me some ecclectic antique lenses and bring them back.
It seems to be a win win, although I have no idea where they dig this stuff up. So this weekend they came back with a BUNCH of neat stuff! Petzval's! Convertibles! APO's! Be sure to check every sale as they get listed.
So to start things off, here's a sweeeet little Petzval from about 100+ years ago. This says Conley, which I think was the Monkey Wards House name, but make no mistake, it is a Wolly product. Check out the catalog link above.
The glass on this is just superb. Unbelievable really. Aperture is the old US style. 2 4 8 16 32 64 etc. f16 is the anchor. It's the same in both systems. So you have to count stops forward or backward from f16 to get to our modern equivalents.
People are going coo coo for these on Ebay. I've seen lantern Petzvals with no aperture go for $900! Give me $425 for this one.
