A LEATHER TELEPHOTO LENS CASE BELONGING TO HERBERT PONTING, CIRCA 1907

embossed H.G. PONTING, F.R.G.S. to lid, plush-lined interior and containing an associated lens inscribed NO. 3 BECK UNIVERSALTELEPHOTO LENS NO. 102233 - the case 6½in. (17cm.) wide

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Herbert Ponting (1870-1935) was an innovative photographer and cinematographer most famously associated with Captain Scott’s 1910-13 Antarctic Terra Nova expedition where some of the most iconic images of that continent were captured from the base at Cape Evans. Proud of being elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in 1905, some of his equipment was marked 'F.R.G.S.' thereafter. Ponting is documented as having used Bausch & Lomb lenses, including on the expedition, but the threads were standardised and thus components by other makers, including Beck, could be fitted. Beck's main London premises in Mortimer Street were a three-minute walk from Ponting's pre-expedition lodgings in Gower Street and as another Beck lens (housed in a Bausch & Lomb shutter mechanism) has been provisionally attributed to Ponting, he may have been a regular patron. The lens contained within the leather case was of the sort Beck's advertising targeted at explorers and travellers and, whilst it cannot be said with complete certainty it was a lens used in the Terra Nova expedition, it can be said that as a relatively new and comparatively small lens, it may have formed part of the 200kg or so of equipment that Ponting took. Latterly Ponting fell into financial difficulties and an estate sale held after his death included large amounts of his photographic equipment, of which elements surface occasionally.

Charles Miller Ltd is grateful to Anne Strathie, author of Herbert Ponting, The History Press, 2021; and Dr Michael Pritchard, F.R.P.S. for their invaluable assistance with this lot.

Condition Report

Securing strap missing lower section; lens mechanically sound, optics unknown.

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