New Gem Camera

Simon Wing
Charlestown, Mass.
ca. 1901

The Simon Wing New Gem is a nicely crafted wooden camera that made fifteen separate exposures, each about 1¼ inch square, on a 5×7 inch (13×18 cm) plate. It was made by Simon Wing and Company of Charlestown, MA about 1901. It has a sliding front lens panel that allowed it to take 15 separate photos which were then cut into small gem size photos for jewelry and albums. The camera would probably have been used commercially for tintype 'gem' portraits.