The Stirn Vest Camera is a late-19th-century German concealed detective camera designed to be worn beneath a waistcoat, with the lens protruding through a buttonhole. This box-form model exposes four 4x4cm images on a circular plate and dates to the 1880s, when it was sold as a novelty hidden camera.

With only a single tracked UK auction hammer result on file, a Stirn Vest Camera in this configuration sold for £1,150 in November 2023, which sets the only firm reference point for what one is worth today. Hammer prices at saleroom level reflect wholesale conditions rather than dealer retail, and values are highly sensitive to completeness of the original case, plate holders and mechanism condition; a single data point should not be read as a definitive market range in 2026.