Sotheby's New York is to offer a prototype camerad, named the Phantom, and designed by Noel Pemberton Billing. P-B was the designer of the Compass camera made be Le Coultre. The Phantom never made it beyond the prototype stage and it was dated to c.. The camera was originally sold at Christie's South Kensington in January 2001 where it sold for £146,750, against an estimate of £8,000-12,000 - then a world record auction price for a camera. Sotheby's have an estimate on the camera of US$30,000-50,000.
The Phantom Photographic Unit was one of the last engineering projects Billing worked on before his death. It has clear antecedents in the Compass camera which was taken to its logical conclusion with all aspects of the camera being built in to a single box. The Phantom camera, although larger than the Compass is of a very similar design and layout.
The Phantom, for which there appears to be no published report in any contemporary photographic periodical, was designed between 1944 and 1946. It was made by W. Rollason & Sons of Finchley, London, It was intended to be manufactured and sold complete for £25 in 1948. The prototype was never fully completed and is not fully working.
History of Science and Technology
Sotheby's New York
15 July 2026 from 1900 (BST)
Lot 23
See the Sotheby's description here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2026/history-of-science-technology-2/phantom-photographic-unit
and the original Christie's description: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1985601
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