Your First Purchase?

[Blix]

What was your first "vintage" photo purchase and why did you buy it?
Did you spend big bucks?

[Ole]

A 1890's photo by Knut Knudsen, of a so far unidentified scene from western Norway. Rapidly followed by several more, mostly by the same artist, from the same region (dead easy, he stayed here all his life!).

Then a few others including a 1860's French cyanotype, I guess out of curiosity.

All of these have been cheap. Some of them have been ridiculously cheap.

[colrehogan]

Three stereo cards depicting scenes from WWI. I saw them in an antique store and thought that they needed a good home. They didn't cost very much either.

[jnanian]

1/4 plate dag's purchased at a local antique store 15 years ago. i have no idea who they are of, but i liked the portraits and think i paid about $15 each

[photomc]

1/4 plate dag's purchased at a local antique store 15 years ago. i have no idea who they are of, but i liked the portraits and think i paid about $15 each

Good purchase John...try do find a dag for $15 today. My first 'vintage' purchase was a 5x7 glass plate negative for one of my brothers..military portrait, Spanish-American war - around the 1890's. Since then, have picked up several military images for him, here and there - from mid 1880's to WWII.
Many historians think that everyone in the military has been photographed - either individual or group - since the Civil War (yes, it is a strange thing to call a war - since no war is civil). Interesting thought, and a great insite to US history...from CDV's to digital...now that's a pretty broad range of image capture.

[jnanian]

Good purchase John...try do find a dag for $15 today.

i was pretty psyched when i snarfed them up <g>

after the dags i have an even better 2nd vintage purchase ...
manhattan wizard plate camera (4x5) with case/strap/holders together with a boatload of magic lantern slides of early pioneers of the american aviation/air mail scene. ( a lot of the images can be seen here: http://www.airmailpioneers.org/Saga/Sagapage1.htm and in a book that was published a few years back ) ... i have since sold off the slides to a hardcore collector, but kept the camera ..

[colrehogan]

Hmmm. Come to think of it, I have some glass slides that I bought a few years ago. They were pre-WWII. Guess that's really my first purchase.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Probably a lantern slide of a scene of a rice paddy in the Phillipines. My wife is Filipino, and we liked it. I've tried to dupe and print it, but it is extremely contrasty.

[Sanjay Sen]

I recently bought a Voigtlander Brillant, circa 1933 (or so the seller said). I still haven't figured out if it works, or how to get it to.

[titrisol]

A few negatives from a retiring 3rd generation photographer in my home town.
A lot of pictures from the 1910s and 20s, my grandparents/great-grandparents wer in a few of those