Underwood Tailboard Camera

The Underwood Tailboard Camera is a wooden field camera of the tailboard pattern, a body style produced in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for plate photography. Underwood, a Birmingham-based maker, supplied this kind of camera to amateur and professional plate photographers of the period.

Inspect the bellows for pinholes and corner splits, check the tailboard hinge and focusing rack for play, and confirm the ground glass and plate holders are present and undamaged. Brass fittings should be intact and unbent, and the wood should be free of woodworm, shrinkage cracks and loose joints; replacement bellows can be commissioned but original lenses and plate holders are harder to source.

Generated summary, 28 Apr 2026 — not checked by hand; prices on this page come from the sales, not from this text.