Ensign Cupid. An all metal snapshot camera of unusual design and construction. Circa 1921-1928
- Kamera Ostalgie
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
The Houghton - Butcher Manufacturing Company made some odd cameras in their long existence of being the largest photographic company in the British Empire, 127 years is a long time, but this, the Ensign Cupid must be a very strong contender for the oddest of them all! Nothing about it is conventional. So lets have a close look at it and dig into it's history along the way!
This particular camera was another camera in my collection that was purchased blind through the Postal Auction of the PCCGB many years ago. At that time, when I was a young man, I was collecting Ensign Midgets, and Ensignettes, so the Ensign Cupid sort of fitted in with them, well as much as such an oddball design could fit in with anything. I have had it on show, or tucked away wrapped in a duster for almost 40 years, so time to dust it off and take a look.
The design was patented in 1921 by a Mr V.W. Edwards and Mr A.J. Dennis who according to some sources was the General Manager of Houghton - Butchers factory in London. Whether the Mr Edwards was also an employee of Houghtons is not known. It also involved using an earlier Patented design of 1914 by a gentleman called Mr William Henry Harvey, which was in regard to the way the Cupid used two red windows, where number 1 was wound to the first red window, then the second.
You followed that with number 2 to the first red window and then winding on to put number 2 into the second red window, and so on up to the number 8. In the end you obtained 16 half frame pictures. A simple but clever patent, allowing you to double the number of pictures you could take on a roll of film. Both red windows had their own identification, 'A' and 'B' so there was no confusion. A great design Mr Harvey simple and effective. We think of this idea today of being typically a German method used on many German folders of the 1930's, but as we have discovered, it is 100% British! I rather like the thought of that. But being British and Nationalistic that is not surprising!
What I find intriguing is that the patent supposedly used for the two windows is British Patent 13246. It is not on the Patent plate of the camera, but two later British Patent numbers, British Patent numbers, 194897 and 207637 are! Also when I have searched Patent searches 13246 does not come up! I have found the other two patents though!
This is the wording of the 194,897 Patent of Feb 14th 1922 !
194,897. Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Denniss, A. J., and Edwards, V. W. Feb. 14, 1922. Magazine hand cameras for roll films.-A roll film camera casing which may be made of sheet metal, such as aluminium, by drawing, pressing, or stamping, comprises a box A, containing the lens, shutter, &c., and a slidable end casing F for enclosing the film spools which are supported by the box. The film spools are carried between an end plate E on one side of the box A and a resilient member G on the opposite side. The end casing F has one open end and a side with the central portion removed so that the edges F<1>, F<2> can slide in grooves A<1> in the box A. The box A has turned up edges A<5> for guiding the films, leaf springs B for keeping the film firmly to the spools, and strengthening bulges A<8>. The edges J<1>, F<3> of the casing F make a light-tight joint with a slot A<3> and the flanged edge E<1> of the plate E respectively.
British Patent 207637 of September 8th 1922 is in regard to shutter improvements on the Cupid. For those interested it is set out below.
207,637. Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Denniss, A. J., and Edwards, V. W. Sept. 8, 1922. Shutters.-A tortuous or zig-zag guideway and a co-operating pin are introduced into the shutter mechanism between the shutter and a pivoted or hinged member, so that the latter is caused to oscillate during the exposure. The invention is applicable for fixed speed shutters and is adaptable as the controlling means for variable speed shutters. In a fixed speed sliding plate shutter the pin A<1>, Fig. 1, on the shutter blade A engages the zig-zag slot D<1> in a plate D pivoted at one end C to the camera front B. In a variable speed sliding plate shutter, Fig. 5, one arm of the lever M has a pin engaging the slot N<1> in the pivoted plate N and the shutter speed is controlled by setting the other arm in the path of the shutter pin L<1> according to a speed scale and so varying the length of travel of the pin in the slot N<1>. In a fixed speed pivoted blade ever-set shutter, Fig. 4, a pin J<1> on the operating bell crank lever J, travels in the zig-zag slot H<1> on an oscillating plate H which is pivoted at one end H<2> to the shutter blade G. In a variable speed shutter of the diaphragm type, Fig. 6 the end Q<1>, of a lever Q is raised against a spring R by a hand operated lever (not shown) until the latter clears and releases the end Q<1> which permits the spring R to operate the shutter leaves S, S<1>. A fixed pin Q<2> on the lever Q works in a slotted link T, to one end T<1> of which is pivoted a plate U having the zig-zag slot U<1> which moves over a fixed pin V. The other end T<2> of the link T is pivoted to a bell-crank lever W rocking on a fixed pivot W<1>, the longer arm W<2> of which acts as a setting lever to vary the retarding effect of the link T and plate U.
Okay, lets leave British Patents behind for a second and lets look at the specification of this camera.
The Cupid uses Ensign E20 film, or 120 size roll film in todays money. It takes 16 exposures of 2 1/4 x 1 3/8. The shutter only has two settings, I and T. The speed for I is thought to be around 1/30th of a second, according to modern sources, so right on the limit of being hand held ! You would have to be really steady with this. The aperture is either f11 f12or f14, again depending on the modern source you read! The camera is half frame on 120 film. The lens is allegedly an Achromatic Meniscus type. I'm a little doubtful about the shutter speed being only 1/30th of a second though. I mean there are no tripod bushes and as yet I have not found anywhere for a cable release, so you would expect the shutter speed to be around a 60th, which is more practical for taking hand held pictures, which is what this camera was designed to do.
Houghtons advertising for the Cupid really pushed the economics of 16 exposures on a roll of film. '' Sixteen exposures for one shilling'' was how they put it at the time.
When you start digging into the history of the Ensign Cupid then things get a little clearer and a little more interesting. It looks like one or two of the contemporary sources that can't agree on the speed of the lens could be wrong. On some original adverts it clearly states that the lens is f 11 !
Also there was an early version of the Cupid. It took ''12 pictures on 2 1/4B six exposure film'' Well the old Ensign 2 1/4B that was for just six normal frames, it must have been lengthened to take 8 normal frames at some point, so the camera had to be updated to take 16 smaller frames instead of the earlier 12 ! All interesting stuff!
Below is an image of such an example of the 12 frames model, the wording of 6 is clearly visible instead of the later 8!
Something else very interesting is mentioned in the original advert for the cupid and that is the availability of a Reflex style viewfinder as an accessory. I have seen the odd picture of them and wondered if they were a later non factory add on, but no, it looks like you could buy them ready fitted from the factory or you buy one separately at a later date. That is the usefulness of period adverts and articles.
This is an example of the clip on accessory reflex finder. I love it when you can finally pull old information together. History and old cameras start coming alive.
When I first got the camera I thought that the shutter did not work, but you have to charge the shutter first, however charging the shutter is somewhat unusual. You have to pull up on the little knob shown here at the top of the camera, it is attached to a thin rod, so you pull the rod up as far as it will go, let it drop back and the shutter is charged. Then to fire the shutter, press the knurled button seen at the bottom of the picture and she fires! This shutter is well over one hundred years old and it is still working perfectly. So a camera which sold for just 18 shillings and sixpence is still operational over one hundred years later. You have to hand it to Houghton-Butcher, even their cheap simple cameras were made to last a lifetime.
Lets touch on the subject of paint finishes for the Ensign Cupid. It looks like early ones were a smooth black finish, then later on there were two different types of Crystalline black used, one with a coarser finish than the other. Modern reviewers tend to use the term crackle finish which is not strictly correct as Houghtons always used the term Crystalline in their own literature and adverts. Never crinkle, crackle or hammered, just Crystalline. So to me that is what it is called!
Whilst on the subject of colour, Ensign did produce various colours by some accounts, blue, green and grey seemed to get mentioned, though it may of course all be the same colour just differences down to fading and peoples perception of the colour. I would have to see the three all together to be certain, but probability leans to three individual colours besides black.
There is a picture here on this blog, called tash and nickys cameras, well worth a look, the Cupid looks fantastic in this colour, be it grey, green or blue !
The above drawing is from one of the original patent applications about the Ensign Cupid patent 194, 897 which is the patent number shown on the patent plate of my example.
It is interesting that the Science Museum has an example of an early Cupid with the just 12 exposures not 16 and the smooth black enamel finish. The entry tells us very little about the camera which is very disappointing for the Science Museum, apart from it does tell us the incorrect lens aperture! But the image is worth a look at, so lets take a look, courtesy of the Science Museum.
It shows the smooth black finish and the plate indicating 12 half frame exposures, so it is a very early one. Also one of the red windows is unfortunately missing.
Another statement that keeps coming up in various articles is that the Ensign Cupid design was originally intended to be a stereo camera. Now you can imagine this to be the case, but I can't find out much about this claim, or any pictures of one, or a prototype, just loads of articles making the comment, so I will just mention it as a possibility not a fact!
What is a fact is that in typical Ensign fashion, you could buy a portrait lens for your cupid! They sort of clipped on, over the nose of the camera. That would be a very worthwhile addition for the Cupid user of the time, making the little metal pressed box camera a lot more versatile.
I'm not sure if this one should be called blue or grey, but it looks very nice. The portrait attachment is engraved ''For Ensign Cupid Camera'' so there was no mistaking what it was for! I rather like that!
Lets move forward to today and think about how much you would have to pay for one of these nice but oddball cameras.
Well on eBay which I suppose you would look to first these days, at the time of writing this post, there are eight examples available there. Condition varies greatly and the most expensive are not necessarily the best examples. Prices range from £31.90 to £175 which is pretty wide ranging. I'm surprised that there are as many as eight examples available of a cheap pressed steel box camera that are now around one hundred years old! Survival rate is much better than I expected.
Faults? Many examples today have missing or deformed red windows. The A & B raised markings are often worn away, also the shutter charging rod tops are often missing.
The frame finders tend to bend through careless folding, or have been snapped off. Many have dents in the metal body and rusty areas where the black enamel has worn or chipped away. Shutters, maybe because of their simplicity, still tend to work well.
Having said all that, if you are fancying one, take your time and pick a good complete one, with most cameras but especially these low cost ones, it really pays off to pick the best you can locate. A cheap tatty camera will always be cheap, but a mint cheap camera will hold its value. Take your time and find a good en. For example, of the 8 on eBay at the moment, in my opinion only three are worth buying, and of that three one is way too much money! If you are brave and as they take 120 film, you could always try it out!
If you want to dig further into Ensign Cupids, this is a good read with some excellent photgraphs.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this little post, please subscribe and like, if you do like this sort of thing, it all helps the blog become more noticeable. Currently each post only gets read 5-10 times on average, unless Jim Grey gives me a most welcome plug, when it increases tenfold!
Feel free to comment on a post, very few people seem to comment or discuss anything, so if you have a point to make or some information that I have missed, drop us a comment! I would love to find out more about the two designers of the camera a Mr V.W. Edwards and Mr A.J. Dennis and Mr William Henry Harvey who in fact actually invented half frame photography in his 1914 patent. Who were they? What else did they invent? Why have they just faded into the past, there must be an interesting story to tell here!
Take care,
Phil
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