GARLAND'S NEW SKELETON SHUTTER
E.F. Garland, Lynn Massachusetts 1884 - 1889
Looking more like a Schwinn
bicycle part from the 1950's, Garland's
New Skeleton Shutter was built with a heavy cast frame, a spring mechanism and
two sliding felt cloth blades reinforced by a wire and metal frame. The shutter
was designed to be mounted externally to the front of the lens shade, and by
all appearances looked cumbersome to operate.
Adding to its weight and measuring about 7" x 7-1/4", it's not
a small contrivance by any means.
The paper label affixed states "Regular sizes 3 and
4 Inch openings, Price: $6.00" along with Garland's name and address. The shutter was marketed through both Scovill Manufacturing Company and George Murphy in 1884.
The engraving featured in Scovill's The Photographic Times and American
Photographer, February, 1884 and also in George Murphy's 1884 advertisement
depicting a square-shaped casing such as that found on the Low and Packard
Shutters, differs from the example shown here. The shutter as depicted in the advertisement
below from the Illustrated Catalogue
of the Celebrated Voigtlander & Son's Portrait
Lenses and Euryscopes, April, 1887, is the
same as seen in the Illustrated
Catalogue and Price List of A.B. Paine & Company, No. 4, 1889. This suggests that the example shown here was
mid-to-late production.
Almost never seen today, the Garland can be considered
rare.
