The Art Deco movement originated in France around 1910, its name derived from ‘Arts Décoratifs’. It flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, then faded away in the 1940s. But in the 1950s, a German photographic manufacturer called Walter Kunik revived Art Deco for one last hurrah by building miniature cameras into a series of ladies’ powder compacts.

 

The idea began in 1956 when Kunik introduced a simple subminature camera called the Petie. It had a fixed focus lens, fixed aperture, and shutter speed, and used 16mm film. Basically, it was a low-quality snapshot camera with nothing remarkable about it, until Kunik introduced a series of unusual versions of the Petie integrated into various Art Deco objects, of which the Vanity was the best.

 

The cameras were held in an unashamedly ornate Art Deco series of ladies’ make-up compacts, all beautifully finished in plain or patterned styles and colours, etched with silver or gold Deco lines. Each one followed a similar style, with the camera slotted into one end of the case. At the other end, pressing a small button flipped up a flap to reveal the powder compact, complete with mirror and powder puff. Two tubular compartments on the top of the casing were withdrawn to reveal a lipstick holder and a place for spare films.

 

It’s doubtful that many male photographers bought Petie Vanities back then, and history doesn’t record that women flocked to buy them either. Today it’s a different matter, because the majority of camera collectors for some reason seem to be men, and few of them would turn down the opportunity of owning a Petie Vanity.