Vest Pocket Ensign. The last of the Ensignettes !
- Kamera Ostalgie
- 13 hours ago
- 6 min read
Was this the last throw of the dice by Houghtons, in it's long run of Ensignettes produced
between 1909 and 1931 from a fantastic design by Swedish Camera Designer Mr Magnus Neill in 1907? Some think so, well most people think so, the last gasp of an old aging design before it faded away?
I don't!
I think it was Houghtons Ltd of London saying to the big international corporation, come on then Kodak, we will take you and your Vest Pocket Kodak on and beat you fair and square. You might be the biggest camera producer in America, but we, Houghtons are the largest camera manufacturer in the British Empire.
Why do I think that ? Well if Houghtons had discontinued all their vast range of Ensignettes both No1's and Number 2's, then just brought out the 127 Vest Pocket Ensign for the last year or two of production,then maybe you could be forgiven for thinking that way. That is what many articles lead us to believe. However it is totally the wrong way of looking at it. Houghtons actually brought out the 127 Vest Pocket Ensign in 1923, when the Ensignettes were at their peak, not long after changing the Ensignette production from brass to alloy. It was sold alongside the Ensignette full range, not after them as some last gasp. The Vest Pocket Ensign was an addition to the Ensignettes, a separate camera model in its own right.
No, far from being a fading swansong, the Vest Pocket Ensign was a direct challenge to Kodak, why they even made it to use Kodaks own 127 film size and very cheekily used Kodaks 'Vest Pocket' name in the process! I would have loved to have been in the boardroom at Houghtons the day they thought this one up! Their marketing man was a bloody genius. Vest Pocket Kodak? Not likely, Vest Pocket Ensign, that is the camera you want. I think that the Gents at Houghtons skipped the usual Typhoo tea and Chocolate Digestives that afternoon, for a good single malt whiskey and some Walkers all butter shortbreads. I bet they were still smiling when they were driving back home in their Bentleys and Daimlers later that evening.
The Vest Pocket Ensign was a challenge to Kodak. Houghtons as a film producer, must have been a little miffed when Kodak brought out films for the Ensignette, when they had never even made a camera of their own to take those films. Kodak had noted how popular the Ensignettes had become and what a massive market films for the Ensignette was, so they made films especially to fit them. Houghtons replied with a camera that would take sales off Kodaks very popular 127 Vest Pocket Kodak camera, hence the appearance of the Vest Pocket Ensign.
So, lets have a close look at the Vest Pocket Ensign, Houghtons challenge to the Vest Pocket Kodak!
As you can see, from the picture above, it was more or less an up graded Alloy No 2 Ensignette, or lets put it another way, it was an Ensignette re-worked for Kodak 127 film. Or should I say for Ensign-Speedy 1J film? Yes, that sounds better, we shall leave it like that.
The up-grade? On my example at least, the lens. The new Vest Pocket Ensign was fitted with an improved lens, a Taylor, Taylor & Hobson Luxor Anastigmat lens of f 7.7, which was an improvement over the standard Ensignette No 2 with its f 11 lens. The black crystalline enamel finish rather than the high gloss black enamel was more or less the only other change. Only the front cheeks were gloss enamel, the rest of the camera being Crystalline.But the main up-grade was the ability to take 127 film.
There are examples of the Vest Pocket Ensign with the virtually same lens and front panel as my Ensignette No 2 though, like this nice example below. So maybe the only important difference initially was in fact that it took 127 film? I suspect there were various versions of the Vest Pocket Ensign, just as there was with the Ensignette No 2. The one below is probably a better direct comparison.
However we can still compare the two, even if my Vest Pocket Ensign is a slightly up market model with its different lens.
We can see on the image below, the new TT&H Luxor lens. The patent number is 157037 and the lens number on my example is 102358. The masked off cheeks can clearly be seen, looking like the Black Crystalline finish was put on top of the gloss. I suppose the Crystalline finish was more up to date for the late 1920's, but I do prefer the gloss black on these cameras.
My particular example is body number 907 which like the previous No 2's is marked on the back and on the main body. The camera weighs in at 234 g. It has had a pretty hard life by the looks of it, whilst it still looks presentable it has a missing screw stop where one of the bottom struts should catch in, and the bellows have seen much better days, and are no longer light tight, which is a shame as being 127 it is much more useable today than the No2. The shutter still operates on all speeds, the lens is pretty clean for its age as is the viewfinder and it would not take a lot of work to make it useable again, however the cost of new bellows makes it not economically viable really, which is a shame.
We gathered another Patent number along the way as Houghtons, just like their rivals Kodak, loved putting patent numbers on their products.
This is the Vest Pocket Ensign with Patent numbers 28464 of 1907 and 165575 of 1920.
This is the Ensignette No 2 Alloy, with Patent 28464 and others pending!
The main difference is that with the Vest Pocket Ensign, you used 127 film or Ensign 1 J, so lets have a look in the back of the camera.
We can see that the spools and spool holders are the major change on the Vest Pocket Ensign.
Both spools are of the old metal style. I wonder when a film last past through this
camera?
The more usual Ensign film size sticker appears in this Vest Pocket Ensign, rather than the caution sticker of the Ensignette.
The camera serial number, 907, can be seen clearly here, stamped around the red window.
I really like these little Houghtons strut cameras. There were a few other strut cameras around at the time of the Ensignettes, mainly German in origin, such as the Goerz Anschult and of course the Tenax, also from Goerz. Ernemann also produced strut cameras, as did Zeiss with their Palmos camera. But all these German products of fantastic quality were aimed at the more professional market, especially press photographers of the time, not the average man in the street.
In France they produced a really interesting strut camera called the Blocknotes. I have one that I bought forty years ago, when I locate it, I'll do a review. It's rather odd, so worth a look at.
But it was Houghtons who were the first to really produce strut cameras for the amateur or snap shot market in any numbers, with the Ensignette series of cameras. They also followed them up with the often overlooked, but similar Double Eight strut camera, which once again like the Vest Pocket Ensign, took 127 film, there is probably a reason for using 127 again and of course there were the Ensign Midgets which were still being produced up to the outbreak of WW2.
The Ensign Double 8 strut camera of around 1935, took 16 images on 127 film.
There was also the Popular Ensignette, from the early 1920's, totally different and much larger than the usual Ensignettes which is often forgotten about today. But a similar strut camera nevertheless.
That more or less brings us to the end of our look at Houghtons Vest Pocket Ensign. It was no swan song, no stop gap or the last throw of the Ensignette dice, but was in fact Houghtons throwing down the gauntlet to Kodak, saying we can take you on, and take them on they did.
I hope you liked this little ramble into another of Houghtons wonderful cameras, it is becoming a bit of a habit! I admit I am a bit biased towards the products of Houghton-Butcher, but there you go.
Hopefully it has made you look at the Vest Pocket Ensign in a different light and not the usual same old story that just gets repeated. Oh we are big on original thinking and independent thought here at Kamera Ostalgie ! It quite often gets me into trouble in the process!
Please feel free to like and subscribe and of course comment. Go on, you are itching to say something.
I just noticed how grubby the camera back was, so before you say anything, it has now been cleaned!
Take care,
Phil
I spotted this image when going through my photos of the vest Pocket Ensign for this article, two little white fluffy gits that got themselves into the picture, it made me chuckle, so I have included it just for fun, oh they get everywhere these Shepherd dogs!
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