Handmade vintage cameras

Wonderful. Proper craftsmanship...

Sadly, they're no longer around. According to camera-wiki:

Gandolfi was founded by Louis Gandolfi in 1885. In 1928 he handed over the company to his sons, Arthur, Frederick and Thomas, who continued to run the company in the traditional way. They never employed more than a few staff, and were a small craftsman-type operation. They made many cameras as one-offs, to individual requirements. The last Gandolfi brother, Arthur, died in 1993. The Gandolfi company was sold a few years previously, when the brothers retired, but still continued to make cameras, both the traditional mahogany and brass models and the new Variant models. The company was closed on the 13 October 2017 by Edward Hill.
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Oldbones said:
Just found this on the BBC archive, amazing stuff.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4nfqzBDLlc
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I've never used a Gandolfi camera, but everywhere I worked had a Gandolfi tripod. As shown in the link. The ones I used were always black, and I can't remember anyone commenting on it.

fourtoes.co.uk

Gandolfi tripod revamped - FOURTOES

I bought this Gandolfi tripod of Feepay as I’d sold my last vintage wooden tripod and regretted it. This one is much more sturdy and looks like it will hold my larger cameras easily. This was covered in the standard awful black paint of the time. After several hours with various brands of...
fourtoes.co.uk fourtoes.co.uk

I also had t a "giant" Gandolfi tripod which towered above my head fully extended. I had this at the same time as my 1/2 plate Kodak Specialist monorail.

Kodak Eastman: Specialist 3 Price Guide: estimate a camera value

Kodak Eastman: Specialist 3 - c1950s. 4x5'' plates, studio, monorail camera. Similar to Calumet 400.
collectiblend.com

I always aspired to a Gandolfi camera, but never managed to afford it.
 
Somewhere, I have a 2 1/4" square slide of me sitting atop a Gandolfi tripod. From (MUCH faded!) memory, the centre column was raised by a rack and pinion affair on Dad's.
 
Nod said:
Somewhere, I have a 2 1/4" square slide of me sitting atop a Gandolfi tripod. From (MUCH faded!) memory, the centre column was raised by a rack and pinion affair on Dad's.
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All the ones I used were rack and pinion centre columns.
 
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PeterSpencer said:
Same here, I keep seeing them for sale but unjustifiably expensive. Maybe one day, you never know.
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Get a pair and you could make a 2 post car lift from them!!!
 
Many years ago my father had a Sanderson 1/4 plate camera and a Gandolfi wooden tripod which as I carried around the empty City of London once Sunday seemed to weigh a ton. Still have a 1/4 plate developing tank somewhere.
 
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