Item #10232 Manhattan Optical Co. of New York Manufacturers of Cameras Lenses and Photo Supplies.
Manhattan Optical Co. of New York Manufacturers of Cameras Lenses and Photo Supplies.
Manhattan Optical Co. of New York Manufacturers of Cameras Lenses and Photo Supplies.
Manhattan Optical Co. of New York Manufacturers of Cameras Lenses and Photo Supplies.
Manhattan Optical Co. of New York Manufacturers of Cameras Lenses and Photo Supplies.

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Manhattan Optical Co. of New York Manufacturers of Cameras Lenses and Photo Supplies.

Creskill, New Jersey, [ca. 1898]. Oblong 24mo (5.5” x 7.75”), chromolithographic wrappers. 52 pp., b&w illus. throughout. CONDITION: Good, a few stains to wrappers, 2” tear at top left of front wrapper, damp-stain inner margins of leaves, pp. 35–42 roughly cut, including several short tears at right edge.

A scarce and attractively illustrated catalog of photographic equipment, introducing the “Wee Wizard” camera with its 3.5-inch plates, as well as several other models produced only briefly around 1898.

The stated “Sixth Issue” of the Manhattan Optical Co.’s catalogs, this amply-illustrated volume opens with an introduction to its smallest offering yet—the “Wee Wizard,” which is the “result of the steadily increasing demand for compact cameras”—and proceeds apace to describe and picture the “Baby Wizard Jr.,” the “Wide Angle Wizard,” the “Bo Peep” (models B and C), the “Boss Dandy,” and so on, with occasional illustrations demonstrating the pleasing photos that can be taken using the item in question. Other offerings include shutters, candle lamps, view finders, tripods, negative racks, a wide array of toning and fixing powders, and more. The final two pages offer “A Few Points which are well to be remembered when taking a photograph,” and a “wizard,” depicted on the back wrapper in tattered purple breeches and two different styles of shoes, is captioned “Am I A Wizz?” Front and back wrappers include the names of several “Wizard” cameras in the brown and yellow border.

The Manhattan Optical Co. was founded in 1892 in Cresskill, New Jersey. It was acquired in 1902 by the Grundlach Optical Company of Rochester, New York, and became the Grundlach Manhattan Optical Co.

Catalogues issued by the firm are scarce, with only four examples recorded in OCLC, one dated 1896, two dated 1899 (different catalogs), and one dated ca. 1910, though this date is evidently in error.

REFERENCES: “The Manhattan Optical Company” at Collectiblend online; “Wee Wizard by Manhattan Optical Co.” at Historic Camera online.

Item #10232

Price: $250.00

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