Before the famous catchword “say cheese” was coined, a Giroux “Daguerreotype” – the world’s first commercially-produced camera — was invented. The 170-year-old camera (previously undocumented) remained in private ownership in northern Germany for generations and goes up for auction this May at WestLicht Auctions in Vienna. Believed to be the world’s oldest and most expensive camera, the wooden sliding-box camera was made in Paris in September 1830 by Alphonse Giroux. The camera was signed by Jacques Mande Daguerre, which verifies the device’s authenticity and is accompanied by a manual written in German. Valued at a starting price of 200,000 euros, the camera is expected to fetch somewhere between 500,000 to 700,000 euros. There’s no doubt that the passionate collectors will be drawn to the lore and legacy of the camera, and for the rest, it’s such an opportunity to cherish the gadget that fathered the proverb “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Via: Gizmag/Slash Gear
