Perken Son & Rayment 9 x 7 Lens on 5 x 7 Body

[Bryce Vickmark]

Hi, Has anyone used a Perken Son & Rayment 9 x 7 lens on a 5 x 7 body? Or any of the manufacturer's lenses for that matter? Wondering what the results were? Does this lens have value? Thanks!

 

[Ian Grant]

It's a fairly standard Rapid Rectilinear lens it cost 80/- (shillings so £4) in 1898, should be a 12" f8 lens and would have been sold for a Whole plate camera. It was available with an Iris Diapragm as well in a choice of Brass or Aluminium barrel. It has plenty of coverage for a 7x5 camera. It could be a reasonable lens stopped sow, you need to make or buy some suitable water house stops.

While I've not used a Perken lens they were one of the leading London Manufacturers, Louis Gandolfi worked for them before setting up on his own.Perken Son and Rayment were dissolved in 1899 becoming Perken & Co so that gives you a cut off date.

They were typically used with a Thornton Pickard roller blind shutter either front mounted or between lens and lens board.

This is a 20" Rapid Rectilinear with a large front mounting TP shutter. The Between Lens type shutters have an interchangeable panel so can be used with different lenses.

Some TP shutters have Speed dials, the first does, this one doesn't. BTW that's a Wray 12" f8 RR. A TP shutter for the Perken lens is one of the smaller common ones. Speeds are 1/10 to 1/90 with T as well.

Forgot to add value, that's difficult under £100 ($123), I'd pay somewhere in the region of £30 - £50 depending on condition.

Ian

 

[outwest]

I have a 400 f/8 with diaphragm I use on 8x10. A very nice RR. Surprisingly, on contact prints only looses a slight bit in the corners to a 14 inch Ektar.

 

[Bryce Vickmark]

Thank you Ian and Outwest for your responses!

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Hi, Has anyone used a Perken Son & Rayment 9 x 7 lens on a 5 x 7 body? Or any of the manufacturer's lenses for that matter? Wondering what the results were? Does this lens have value? Thanks!

Nice lens. I have a 5x7 version of the Perken RR, but the mounting rings are sometimes hard to find. I also have the big 8x10 version - nicely made barrels.
Did your lens come with a mounting ring?

 

[Peter Ruotsalainen]

Hey all,

I just found a perken & son 10*8 lens on a fleamarket.. can anyone help me with valuation for it?

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

A 7x5 Perken RR lens with iris diaphragm in good condition does about Euro 100. 10x8 should do more, but I bought mine at a very low price at a local market. On the other hand, I paid much more for a rare Perken Grossar II lens in excellent condition.
Currently there are about 3 Perken lenses on *bay from one dealer, but I consider them greatly overpriced

 

[Ian Grant]

It's near impossible putting definitive values on these RR lenses. I bought an unnamed 20" RR lens about 2 years ago for £120 approx 135 euros the seller was asking £300. it's in near mint condition it'll cover 15"x12".

I agree with Ron somewhere around £100 to £140 would be average for an RR lens taking Waterhouse stops, particularly as there's no flange or lens hood, and maybe not a full set of Waterhouse stops. Many RR lenses have a screw in lens hod, or sometimes it's part of the front cell casing, some lenses though didn't come with one, the Optimus did have a screw fit short lens hood and in 1898 your lens a 14" 10x8 and 105/- (shillings) £5 5s (£5.25), in comparison a similar f8 Dallmeyer 13" 10x8 RR was £8 10s (£8.50) Your lens was also available with an iris diaphragm for 120/- £6

Someone who has a Perken 10x8 camera though may well pay more to have a lens to match the camera.

Ian

 

[Peter Ruotsalainen]

It's near impossible putting definitive values on these RR lenses. I bought an unnamed 20" RR lens about 2 years ago for £120 approx 135 euros the seller was asking £300. it's in near mint condition it'll cover 15"x12".

I agree with Ron somewhere around £100 to £140 would be average for an RR lens taking Waterhouse stops, particularly as there's no flange or lens hood, and maybe not a full set of Waterhouse stops. Many RR lenses have a screw in lens hod, or sometimes it's part of the front cell casing, some lenses though didn't come with one, the Optimus did have a screw fit short lens hood and in 1898 your lens a 14" 10x8 and 105/- (shillings) £5 5s (£5.25), in comparison a similar f8 Dallmeyer 13" 10x8 RR was £8 10s (£8.50) Your lens was also available with an iris diaphragm for 120/- £6

Someone who has a Perken 10x8 camera though may well pay more to have a lens to match the camera.

Ian

Thanks a lot for this information!

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Peter, please note that the lens you show in the picture, does not have its mounting flange (nor its sunhood), and my experience is that matching flanges are hard to find and relatively costly. So if a lens comes without its matching flange, it would reduce its value .Consider also that having a flange or retaining ring machined is very pricy.