Houghtons Tropical Victo, 1914.

Houghtons | Tropical Victo | 1914 | English Tropical Camera | Half Plate.
Catalogue No. 0206.
This up market Tropical version of the Triple Victo is Teak instead of Mahogany, with brass-pinned tongue and grooved corner joints and varnished leather bellows, attached with brass plates to their anchor points, to resist hot wet conditions. In a 1915 Houghton's price list, the Standard Triple Victo cost £12-2s-6d, the Tropical Victo cost £13-5s-0d. One wonders who bought them; these prices represent between £2,800 and £3,500 at today's rates. In 1915, the UK average wage across all
social groups, as far as I can determine, was £5 per week; a farm worker at the time earned £0-16s-9d weekly. At prices 10 to 15 times his weekly wage, I guess not many agricultural workers were buying Victos, Tropical or otherwise.