Lot Essay
The Electric Gyroscope Kinematograph Camera Co. Ltd. was registered in 1912 and would appear to have been created by Ernest Moy and Percy Bastie for the manufacture of their revolutionary new camera. The Moy Aerial camera was designed for military purposes to be able to film naval manoeuvres from a hot-air balloon and is described by Samuelson as: the first hand-holdable camera; the first electrically driven 'production' camera and the only one for sixty years to have the motor placed internally; the first camera to have internal displacement type film magazines with a preformed loop; the first stablised camera; the first reflex mirror camera. Camera no. 103 was sold at Christie's on 18 November 2003.