1928 - 29 8x10 Eastman Commercial View! The Flagship Kodak Camera

Description

It's been a 15 year project getting it this far, and one morning you wake up and you're just over it.  When I got it, someone in the mid 1950's no doubt had painted it gray.  Everything turned gray after about 1948 or so.  I took it apart to the bone and stripped until I was blue in the face.
It sat in boxes until about 2 years ago I decided to finish it and re-assemble.  The bellows did not get refurbished, so if you're a real user you'd have to do the "Morley Baer wrap".  I've actually shot some images with it using a borrowed back and a card board lens board.
These cameras were the penultimate flagships of an era of wild opulence and endless growth.  But it ended in the crash of '29.  I believe Eastman Kodak did a big run of these in 1928 and they were still in the catalog in 1932.  No one needed a flagship to show off their prosperity any more.
If you were a big New York Studio in 1928 and wanted the most showy gaudy magnificent camera on earth to wow those who could afford to walk in, this was it!  In 1929, this camera and a Wollensak Beach Multi-focal 14" lens cost more than a new Ford.  Before the crash.
How many are left?
Now for the small print.  2 lock down knobs on the left side are missing.  The tilt swing lens board assy is missing.  The hardware to complete the 8X10 back was lost.  The bellows are shot.  The tripod used to display it is NOT included.  Any of the Kodak, Folmer & Schwing, Graflex, or Century 8X10 camera backs can supply the parts to finish the original cherry frames.
That said, if you have a 14" Beach Multi-Focal or a Pinkham & Smith Series IV #3 or perhaps a Dallmeyer 3A Petzval that needs a foundation for a display, you really need the golden era Flagship Eastman Commercial View.  All others are just wanna-be's.