Mallory and Irvine: Everest: The sale of John Noel's original still camera Update 2/3/2005

Una Tropical Hand Camera (belonging to John Noel)

Picture copyright©CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD.2005

The original still camera used by Capt. Noel on the 1922 and 1924 Everest expeditions, together with six of his photographs (sold without the copyright, meaning you cannot reproduce the pictures) taken on Everest, will be auctioned by Christies, South Kensington on 6th May 2005.

More details: The camera is a Sinclair Una and comes with a letter confirming it's history from Captain Noel together with a photograph of him holding it. I will fax the provisional lot description. If you would like a picture of it I should be able to supply one shortly.

The sale takes place on 6 May at Christie's South Kensington and the camera is included in a specialist camera auction. Christie's estimates the value at 2000-3000 pounds.

Christie's
85 Old Brompton Road
London
SW7 3LD. UK

Background on Capt. Noel

The history of Everest is replete with eccentric, daring and enterprising characters. Among them is Captain John Baptist Lucius Noel who joined the 1924 Third British expedition to Everest as a Photographer and Filmmaker.

Noel’s career began, as did that of many Everest climbers of that era, in the army. During World War I Noel was captured by the Germans and held as a POW until he escaped. His interest in Everest became apparent when he snuck across the border into Tibet in disguise and became the first European to come within 40 miles of the mountain. His illegal foray brought back much needed information that would lead to an official and much larger Everest Reconnaissance expedition in 1921.

In what must have been an enormous and unusual sum at the time, it is said, Noel purchased the photographic rights for the 1924 expedition for £8000. This sum is all the more remarkable given that Noel resigned from the army and forfeited his pension to join the expedition. Noel’s still photos were taken on glass slides that he carefully carried up the slopes of Everest along with his other equipment. They were developed at Base Camp in a specially darkened tent. He filmed the expedition with a 40-pound camera that he hauled as high as the North Col (23,000 feet). Perhaps his best-known photo is that of climbers high on the mountain spreading blankets in the snow to signal to the team below that Mallory & Irvine had failed to return from their summit assault.

A book of his photographs “Everest Pioneer: the Photographs of Captain John Noel” was published by his daughter Sandra Noel in 2003. The book is not yet available in America. His filmed footage with music by expedition member Somervell survives to this day.

 

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