Details

Name

J Lizars

Brief Biography

founded, 1830, Scottish

Occupation

Opticians

Description

Founded in 1830 by the optician John Lizars (1810-1879) in Glasgow. The original business was at at 12 Glassford Street in the Merchant City, It later moved to larger premises, a shop and workroom at 14 and 16 Glassford Street, where all types of optical instruments were made and repaired. John Lizars died in Glasgow in 1879, and the business was placed in the hands of trustees for three years, until 1882 when Matthew Ballantine, son of a photogrpaher from Ayrshire who had married John Lizars' youngest daughter Juliet, was invited to run the business. Under his management, the company began to sell photographic apparatus.

From the 1890s onwards, Lizars began to build their Challenge range of cameras at their Goldenacre factory in the East End of the City. They won a bronze medal for their photographic apparatus at the Glasgow & West of Scotland Exhibition in 1891 and a bronze medal for their cameras at the Glasgow International Photographic Exhibition in 1897. They also specialised in magic lanterns and lantern slides from the nineteenth century until the 1960s and hired out the equipment together with a "Lanternist" to operate it. The company established further branches in Glasgow (from 1880s), Belfast (from 1891), Edinburgh (from 1895), Paisley, Greenock, Motherwell, Aberdeen, and Liverpool. The business continued under the management of two of Matthew Ballantine's three sons, Arthur and Stanley, in the early 1900s. By the 1920's photographers were increasingly turning to roll film. Some of Lizars' cameras were designed to operate with either film or plates. Lizars started to produce metal-bodied cameras and ceased production of their mahogany cameras in the late 1920s. However, they were facing increasing competition from Kodak and other major manufacturers.

Lizars have now been based at Shandwick Place (previously named Maitland Street) close to the West End of Princes Street for over 100 years. Later the company merged with C. Jeffrey Black to form Black and Lizars, an optical retail chain. They are still in business at 6 Shandwick Place, as opticians, and dealers in cameras, binoculars and telescopes. They have a selection of second-hand cameras and a wholesale photographic department selling photographic materials.