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- Apr 4, 2014
- Messages
- 84
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I'm working on a better serial number guide and master timeline for the first century of Taylor-Hobson and Cooke lenses. CameraWiki repeats Vade Mecum's sketchy offering, but it seems to make a few major mis-steps, despite being so brief.
Based on serials we've collected, and information harvested from the current Cooke Compendium (which seems to be a dumbed-down version of Barabara Lowry's original 2018 pages - now apparently lost), I have a much more substantial and useful guide that will be freely published at Delta, but I still have many gaps. Can you help?
Three things would be helpful:
1. To post (or send me privately if under copyright) Taylor Hobson or Cooke catalogues or manufacturer information. I'll update the thread with a list of material gathered so you can see where we have gaps. To clarify this point – there's already a lot of material online, but the majority focuses on early 20th century taking lenses. What's thin on the ground is information from 1950-1980. In particular, I'm looking for technical information and brochures for TH enlarger and projector lenses.
2. To post any pictures - but definitely serials - of any Taylor-Hobson or Cooke lenses you own
3. If you're local to Beverly Hills, and keen to learn about the company, pay a visit to the Margaret Herrick archives that contain material transferred away from Leicester in 2021. There will be questions . . . for instance, the first 50 years of production seems not to have a contiguous chronological system. Or does it?
It's a great shame that the work of such an important maker is under-publicised. Vey few companies have a continuous tradition of cutting edge lens manufacture for 130 years. Zeiss, Nikon and Leica have gone to great lengths to tell their own stories and preserve their heritage, but most makers of long standing seem to have little interest in their own past, frittering away their archives. That England ever produced a manufacturer of such stature is still unknown to most photographers.
_________________
Based on serials we've collected, and information harvested from the current Cooke Compendium (which seems to be a dumbed-down version of Barabara Lowry's original 2018 pages - now apparently lost), I have a much more substantial and useful guide that will be freely published at Delta, but I still have many gaps. Can you help?
Three things would be helpful:
1. To post (or send me privately if under copyright) Taylor Hobson or Cooke catalogues or manufacturer information. I'll update the thread with a list of material gathered so you can see where we have gaps. To clarify this point – there's already a lot of material online, but the majority focuses on early 20th century taking lenses. What's thin on the ground is information from 1950-1980. In particular, I'm looking for technical information and brochures for TH enlarger and projector lenses.
2. To post any pictures - but definitely serials - of any Taylor-Hobson or Cooke lenses you own
3. If you're local to Beverly Hills, and keen to learn about the company, pay a visit to the Margaret Herrick archives that contain material transferred away from Leicester in 2021. There will be questions . . . for instance, the first 50 years of production seems not to have a contiguous chronological system. Or does it?
It's a great shame that the work of such an important maker is under-publicised. Vey few companies have a continuous tradition of cutting edge lens manufacture for 130 years. Zeiss, Nikon and Leica have gone to great lengths to tell their own stories and preserve their heritage, but most makers of long standing seem to have little interest in their own past, frittering away their archives. That England ever produced a manufacturer of such stature is still unknown to most photographers.
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