NORCA the French ARGUS A, American connection with ROWER & FAP

NORCA A is a 35mm bakelite camera made by F.A.P in France in 1938/40

it is a fact that the camera really looks likes an American ARGUS A, more than that bakelite part are the same...

Only the back is made of metal covered with leather embossed with NORCA name

for comparison this is the American ARGUS A, of course it is most often found in black but i cannot resist to show the cute olive variant :-)

In 1947 F.A.P. also made a very few samples (less than 100 pieces) of NORA PIN-UP, it's interesting to see that the body of that camera is a ROWER of 1935 which is a clone of the American UNIVEX A from UNIVERSAL of 1933

Original American UNIVERSAL UNIVEX model A 1933

ROWER modele 202, a rarer variant of ROWER

The French ROWER 1935

So the American UNIVEX model A of 1933 was copied by ROWER in France c.1935 and then some bodies was used by F.A.P. to create a few PIN-UP

BIJOU folding by ROWER 1937

Add to what has been said before this BIJOU folding made by ROWER in 1937 which looks like a Kodak Bantam or Jiffy, and now you can consider ROWER/FAP found inspiration over the big pond :-)