Wollensak Verito 18-Inch /f4 Diffused Focus Lens --READ!

Description

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Get this amazing lens Now!!!
I am giving up large format photography -- but doing so very reluctantly -- because the equipment is getting too heavy for me to carry and lift.  My great reluctance to give it up is largely due to these big Verito lenses.  I have owned five or six of these babies, and I love the crazy swirls it gives me when shooting landscapes and cityscapes, as well as the soft-focussy-yet-sharp-in-the-eyes look that it renders on portraits whenever I shoot with it wide open.
The black enamel on the lens barrel shows some wear, scratches, and residue (it looks as if someone had taped something on the barrel).  In addition, there is a dent in the front rim.  The glass is clear, but there is a "speck"--it may be a scratch, I'm not sure--about 2 mm long and 1 mm wide on the inside of the rear element.  Otherwise, the glass has no burrs, no balsam separation, no haze.  There may, of course, be tiny cleaning marks on a lens this old.  The big issue with this lens is that there is no iris.  Actually, the iris blades are included with the lens, but they are detached from the lens and packaged separately.
What happened was this.  (This is a bit of a shaggy dog story, but it's entertaining.) I bought this lens on eBay a while back, with the intention of using it.  When the lens arrived, I did not examine it carefully.  (You may sense that there's a moral here.). When I finally got around to examining the lens and manipulating the shutter, the iris blades all fell apart inside the lens.  What the hell?!!!  I sent the lens to S. K. Grimes, asking them to kindly re-attach the blades, but after examining the lens carefully, Joel Dau told me the damnedest story.  Apparently, "someone"--presumably the seller I had purchased the lens from--had canabalized the springs and clips that hold the blades together, in order to fix another lens, and he simply arranged the blades in their normal appearance and sold me the lens.  WHO WOULD DO THIS?  When I finally got around to examining the lens and opening and closing the iris, the blades came unstuck, and tinkle-tinkle, they were bouncing around loose inside the lens.  Ugh.  I never imagined anyone would do such a thing and try to sell a lens that way.
To make matters worse, Joel said that the springs and clips that would hold the iris blades together and make them work are not being made anymore, and Grimes cannot fabricate them.
Other than that, this is a fabulous lens.  It can be shot wide-open, with a hat for a shutter.  I've done that with other lenses (but not with this one), and it works.
The lens comes with a retaining ring. None of these problems will have any effect on the quality of the images that this lens will take.  For its age, I consider this lens to be in Excellent condition.
The shipping charges reflects professional FedEx packing, insurance, and shipping.  Sorry, I will not save money on shipping by stuffing expensive photographic equipment into cheap cardboard UPSP mailers, padded with crumpled newspapers, and sealed with scotch tape and string.
I only ship within the continental United States.
Good luck, and happy bidding.