No. 1A Gift Kodak

In 1928, Eastman Kodak Company gave Walter Dorwin Teague his first major contract; he had established his studio in New York City two years earlier. The partnership continued until Teague’s death, and he designed a number of cameras for Kodak, including the Baby Brownie (1934), the Bantam Special (1936), and the Brownie Hawk Eye (1950). This model is a version of the No. 1A Pocket Kodak Jr., a self-erecting, folding camera. An earlier version, the Vest Pocket Kodak (1912), had been popular with soldiers during the First World War because of its quality and portability. After the war, it was redesigned and mass-marketed as an inexpensive, easy-to-use consumer camera. For the 1930 holiday season, Kodak asked Teague to redesign the model’s faceplate and box, which were usually solid black. Taking visual cues from Art Deco, a popular style in the late 1920s, Teague created a pattern of interlocking geometric shapes in black, brown, silver, and red, recalling the work of modernist painters, such as Mondrian. The camera reflects a convergence of art and industry. In a 1930 advertisement in the New York Times, Kodak termed the camera "One of the finest looking Kodaks ever offered."