Naylor Auction Catalog - YIKES Doesn't Describe What I See ... And it's Not What You Think

I did order my catalog two weeks ago. No catalog, no reply mail and no money drawn from my VISA.

Guess I got luckey then J

/Ake

Okay … so I took a chance and spent the money on the Naylor auction catalog. Given the scope and importance of the collection, it should be a reference worth owning … or so I thought.

Although nice on the surface, it didn’t take but a few minutes of perusing the camera section to see how incredibly poor the production and editing is. Actually, things got odder the deeper into the catalog I delved into apparatus that takes pictures.

• Who’s Minding the Store? Many cameras are incorrectly identified … not even close to being correct. For example, a camera that could be a stereo Anthony or AOC is listed as a No. 6 Circuit. (Yup … Cirkut spelled as Circuit.)  What appears to be a Wing Little Giant is listed as a “Mono or Stereo Camera” by Scovill.  Interestingly, the Scovill Waterbury View is listed as a Debrie Sept. Now I don’t claim to be the world’s foremost expert on cameras, but some of these are errors are pretty awful. Oh … drum roll please … THE winner of the category for “best impersonation of a rare camera” goes to Lot C108. The image shows what appears to be a “gotta have” Roberts 16-tube wetplate. The listing describes a “No.1 Panoram Kodak.”  (Queue the audience for loud applause.)

• Keep ‘em Guessing Is My Motto: Many of the cameras illustrated on pages do not have Lot numbers associated with them. For instance, a Bell’s Straight Working Panoramic is shown on a page with no Lot number. Then again, I couldn’t find a Lot matching the Bell’s.

• Who’s On First? The catalog organization is confusing. Starts with cameras, goes to images, viewers, special interest stuff, pre-photography, more cameras, etc.  Is this the way Naylor organized his collection? Oddly, the first Lot is the “Edwin Land polaroid Collection,” then subsequent lots go into magnet cameras (e.g. Leicas). Wood and brass make an appearance later on. The really rare dag equipment appears in a section dedicated to the dag period deep in the heart of the catalog after numerous image Lots. Even the section containing cameras doesn’t appear to have any rationale. Here’s one of my favorite sequences:

-          C86: Professional Ansco View (c1940)

-          C87: Multiplying Camera c1870. Huh?  In reality, the image shows a beautiful Wing camera. The camera must be embarrassed by being so historically important while next to more mundane items and wanted to be listed simply as a Multiplying Camera.

-          C88: Penny Picture Camera c1890. In real life, this is an Anthony Climax Multiplying Camera.

-          C89: Sunflower Multiplying Camera, 1899. I have one of these in my collection. The patent application is 1901. And … a couple sentences were repeated in the description. I guess this is really important and there will be a test later. Sheesh.

-          C90: Ruby Reflex Tropical Camera.

-          C92: 620 Snap Shot Camera … The description identifies it as a Roy Rogers Camera by Herbert George. Another case of embarrassment?

-          C92: Brownie Target Six-20

-          C93: Century Studio Camera No.1

-          C94: Royal Ruby Folding Camera

-          C95: Bon Ton 5 Minute Picture Camera

-          C96: Nine Lens Success Camera … Yup … the image shows an early 1870s Success Model.

            Okay … you all get the idea.

• Surprise! … Starting on page 112 and continuing through page 115 is “The Naylor Espionage Collection.”  Nice stuff is here including the famous Scovill Book Camera … you name it.  All grouped together giving me the impression that this is a single Lot. No descriptions on any of the equipment. Guess what? The catalog states that only a small portion of the collection is shown and to contact them if you want details, etc. They’ve got to be kidding.

“If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” (Sing to the tune of “How Much Is That Camera in the Window?) There are no bid estimates or anything. Actually, the Plumbe dag has a $60,000 - $80,000 range (estimate?).  The website does not have a price sheet. How is someone supposed to consider bidding? Fine … the catalogue says Internet bidding is available and live bidding can be done at liveautions.com.  Hmmm … nothing there either. Oh … did I mention the 22% buyer’s premium?

We’re just about one month from the auction and the catalog is inaccurate, Lot prices not available, etc. You would think that this prestigious, historically important collection would be better represented and organized.

On the other hand, the images are nice and some rare items are shown.

Hold a sec … maybe I received a rare prototype of the Guernsey’s auction catalog for the Naylor collection. Gee. Maybe it will be worth money someday.

The auction house will receive comments.

- Rob