Pearson and Denham High Quality Field Cameras from Leeds.
- Kamera Ostalgie
- Aug 31
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 28
Maybe today, most people in the U.K. do not realise that Great Britain was from the 1880's to the start of the Great War the major camera producer of Europe or indeed the whole world. Post war, Germany came to prominence up to the end of the 1950's, but before that it was Great Britain that led the way.
We are talking wet plate and dry plate cameras usually made of polished hard woods with brass fittings and leather bellows. These were the cameras of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, they recorded life in the British Empire in fine detail on glass plates. Their makers were many, the designs were new, varied and the quality of the cabinet making usually first class, wood mainly but not always mahogany, was hand picked from quality hardwoods, they were designed and built to last, and history tells us that they did.
Surprisingly for some, one of the main areas of camera production was in the North of England not just London. Thinking about it, the West Riding of Yorkshire was rich in textile production wealth, new money if you like, and the holders of this new money were very interested in this new thing photography, hence many camera manufacturers were cropping up in Leeds and Bradford. It was the same across the border in Lancashire, where Manchester was another hub of Victorian camera producers.
One of these relatively small camera makers was Pearson And Denham of Leeds. Information about them is sketchy often contradictory but it looks like Pearson and Denham started up making camera parts for the many small producers of the time, I vaguely remember seeing an old catalogue of them years ago, they seemed to start production in the early1890's quickly branching out into complete camera production. There is evidence that they had a stand at the 1891 Leeds International Photographic Exhibition at the municipal buildings in Leeds, promoted by the Fine Art Committee of the County Council and the Leeds Photographic Society.
There still exists a photograph of this Stand at the above exhibition showing there cameras and other products as well as actual photographs. It seems Pearson and Denham were also photographers and photographic retailers as well as camera producers.
Reports say that camera production ceased around 1910, but I'm not sure if we can be certain of this.
Other reports say they still produced cameras in small numbers up till about 1920. The retail side of the business was still going in the 1960's.
Fully extended they were a beautiful looking camera, lovingly finished, quality wood French polished well with brass fittings typical of the 1890's. You could just imagine how pleased the Mill owner or other northern industrialist would have been with his new locally manufactured plate camera. Back in the 1890's these cameras were not for the working man, but a product that only the relatively well off could purchase.
Looking carefully at this camera, it looks to me that when it was first made it, like most of the cameras of this age had no shutter, the lens cap being used as the shutter. Then as time went on and plates got faster, more sensitive, the shutter was then needed and then added. Maybe ten or more years after the camera was new.
The lens flange would originally have been screwed directly to the removeable circular front panel before it was fitted to the later wooden shutter.
How do we know this? Well originally the lens would have been fitted by sliding the panel under the brass fitting at the top of the lens panel cut out, (above) then moving the bottom two brass fittings around so they held the lens panel firmly in place.
With the shutter in place, the lens panel is very difficult to fit as the shutter obscures the brass fittings making it very fiddley to firmly fit the panel. Also the brass flange is slightly too wide for the shutter and overhangs at the edges. This would never have been done from new.
On top of this, there is no room for the shutter in the outfit case at all, just enough room for the camera, three dark slides and its lens, with the focusing cloth sat neatly on the top.
It is like being a detective working out the history of these old wooden cameras.
The lens, which is f8, has no makers name on it, which is not unusual. neither has the later shutter.
Many of this sort of shutter were produced by Thornton Pickard, but this is not one of them !
Look at the quality of the finish and the neat joints in the body.
Normally on this quality of camera the slots in the screw heads line up !
This is a turntable base where the tripod attaches to hold the camera. I have its tripod somewhere, this was a great improvement as it meant you did not have to shift the whole tripod to alter the viewpoint slightly, then faff about getting it all level and sturdy again, you just moved the camera on its turntable then locked it with the lock screw. This feature was a total game changer in it's day.
Your compact camera 1890 style, all folded up for carrying!
Well, that's it, your state of the art camera of 1890 made in Leeds by one of Yorkshires finest producers. The camera is still around and serviceable in 2025!
Now just to throw a spanner in the works, this might not be one of Pearson and Denham's own cameras, it might in fact be bought in from another maker. Why do I think that? Well, the makers names are more often than not set in flush with the woods surface if the manufacturers were putting their own name on. But if they were being produced for a retailer or another maker, then as all the names would mean ivory panels of different sizes to fit different lengths of names, they were placed on top of the wood like the one above, not set flush. Also the maker would have taken the upmost care with his creation and lined the screws up!
Anyway, whatever its history, whoever made it, whoever purchased it when new one hundred and thirty or so years ago, today it is still a cracking camera!
We could of course play devils advocate and say this camera is earlier than the 1890's, the lack of a shutter when first made would back up this theory, some reports say Pearson and Denham were in existence since around 1872 as some sort of photographers and retailers, they also seem to have made or sold various medical instruments, so this camera could have been made some time in the 1880's by another manufacturer and bought in and the Pearson and Denham name plate added. Their own cameras were usually given the model name of 'Loidis', but this camera has no model name. Another name they used was 'The Standard' There is evidence of another similar example named 'The Loidis' with a solid base not a turntable one! See below ! Maybe there was a link with Reynolds and Branston who were making cameras nearby at about the same time?
I don't suppose we will ever know, but the cameras of West Yorkshire is a very interesting subject and those pioneer camera makers made some fantastic cameras in the forty years or so before the Great War.
What do you think?
I hope you enjoyed this little post, something a little different from usual.
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Take care,
Phil