E. K. PAGE Stereoscope

Patented to Edwin K. Page of Havana, NY, July 5, 1870, a stereoscope with a pantograph style slide. The original patent #104,990 showed an all wood construction, later examples have metal slides. Page was shown in the 1870 Census records as living on the family farm and was 21 years old.

This is the most common Page style viewer. Variants include steel slides with brass or steel rivets, hoods with brass tacks or steel screws, wire card holders in the same style but different heights, nose pieces fastened with nails or screws and viewers with or without a metal frame trim on the inside of the glass. The folding handle was standard. Lenses came in several sizes. There are two variants in the pantograph. Early pantographs were made of cast steel and the wood card holder had a slot for the stereograph to rest in.

These were made in 3 models, a deluxe model of Brazilian rosewood with the lens holder, nose piece and inside of the hood painted black. The card holder had rosewood veneer on top and bottom. There was a metal trim plate on the inside of the glass lenses.

The standard model was made of mahogany throughout and will be found with or without black paint on the inside of the hood.

The third model was produced with a paper hood painted green or in faux wood grain with the viewer again made of mahogany. No doubt this was a low cost model.

The second pantograph variation was made of stamped steel that has a point at the card holder end which eliminated the need for a slot in the wood card holder. These pantographs probably saved money and eliminated some manufacturing steps.

Note the point & no slot.

All examples I have seen have a blind stamp on the wood card holder indicating a second patent #201,804 issued March 26, 1878, which would make one believe that all these viewers were produced after that date.(Wing, page 128) This patent was issued to W. H. Lewis and was for a drum type viewer. Most Lewis patents were eventually assigned to E. & H. T. Anthony Co. and this particular patent was assigned in 1878. Wing speculates that later versions of Lewis viewers were produced by Pattberg. (Wing, page 137)

The stereoscope patented by W. H. Lewis, #201,804, used the same sliding mechanism in stamped steel and without the pointer.