In support of Chris' Nisperos' report, from the horse's mouth, as it were: Dead Link Removed
For those of you who don't read french, the key points are:
Auction Team Koln provided none of the documentation promised.
There's no evidence that Niepce used such a camera or lens.
Alternative explanations for it exist and haven't been ruled out.
HERE IS THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
Text put online on
www.niepce.com on October 10th, 2007.
Thoughts on the Auction of a Camera Obscura Attributed to Niépce
On 13 October 2007, the Auction Team Köln in Cologne plans to sell on auction a camera obscura (item nr 452) entitled Original Camera of Nicéphore Niépces, before 1825. So as to react to the numerous inquiries we receive concerning the authenticity of this attribution, we have decided to reply with the following statement:
To begin with, we have to say that we havent received any of the numerous scientific expertises and none of the reports by renown experts and institutions, which are proposed on request in the catalogue and the website of the Auction Team Köln. The only document we received is a summary by M. Bickart (Auction Team Köln, France). It is thus very regrettable that no expert agreed to write an analysis of this camera in his field of competence.
We are thus not talking about an expertise of renown, confirming the attribution of this camera to Nicéphore Niépce, but an assessment by the Auction Team Köln itself, which draws on a line of argumentation that fails to clearly attribute the camera to the inventor of photography.
For us, it seems that there are too many incompatibilities with what we know on Niépces research, for example as regards the format of the camera, the size of the images, the use of frosted glass, etc. To this, we must add the absence of any mention of the camera and the lense in Niépces (otherwise highly comprehensive) letters. In addition, it is extremely difficult even impossible to include this lense in the chronology of the evolution of Niépces research, whether before or after 1825. All these elements confirm our doubts regarding its authenticity.
At present, and to the extent of our current knowledge, it is thus impossible for us to certify that this camera could have ever belonged to Niépce.
Furthermore, we regret that other (highly promising) possibilities to attribute this camera have not been further explored:
These include Claude Felix Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor, the inventor of photography on glass, who was from St Cyr, a small village next to Niépces. Or Fortuné Joseph Petiot-Groffier (1788-1855), a photography pioneer living near Chalon sur Saône. Invoices show that as early as 1840, he ordered his own camera obscura, lenses and other photographic material from Vincent Chevalier, at the time when this optician was trying to perfect Daguerres camera, by reducing the size of the images to shorten exposure time.
Burgundy indeed abounds in photography pioneers, who have followed the steps of its glorious inventor.
At Gras, the Nicéphore Niépce House, on October 7th, 2007.
Jean-Louis Marignier and Pierre-Yves Mahé
All the best,
Sam H.