Wetzlar Camera Auction 9 October 2021: A personal preview

The Wetzlar Camera Auction, to be held at noon (German Time) on October 9, will be the third of its kind. Wetzlar Camera Auctions is owned by Jo Geier of Mint and Rare Cameras in Vienna and Lars Netopil of Classic Cameras in Wetzlar. Lars, who is a good friend of mine, is an eminent camera historian and the author of many publications on the subject of vintage Leicas. He is also a vice-president of the German Leica Historical Society as well as being a member of the LHSA – the International Leica Society.

In this article, I’ve singled out just a few of the 252 items in the catalogue and they are the ones I find most interesting. The full catalogue can be found here. As ever, it should be noted that most of the items here are aimed at a specialised collector market, but many of them will be suitable for use if the right materials to use with them (film, accessories and so on) can be found. I will list the items below by lot number to aid in finding them in the catalogue.

Leica III Model F prototype

Lot 0019 Leica III (Model F – not to be confused with the later IIIf) – prototype, serial number 72400, 1932. Start price €40,000 – estimated range €80,000-€100,000.

This is an experimental camera with the addition of slow-speed movement, based on an early Leica II (Model D). In 1933, the Leica III (Model F), the first Leica model with long exposure times of 1/20 to 1s, was introduced. The prototype, offered here, shows a number of significant differences. The design and position of the setting lever for the long exposure time dial is quite different to the arrangement on the production version, which has a dial on the front near the top plate. The 3,5 cm f/3.5 Elmar lens with serial number 138612 also represents a test sample. The construction of the focusing lever is different to that of the production version, presumably to avoid the slow speed mechanism.

Leica M4 Bundeswehr

Lot 0083 Leica M4 olive “Bundeswehr”, serial number 1266114, 1970. Start Price 60,000 – estimated range €100,000-€120,000

With only 31 units produced, this is a real rarity and the most scarce type among the Bundeswehr Leica cameras, with its olive-green finish. The engraving “Bundeswehr” (Federal Army) appears on the rear side of the top plate. Apparently, the camera has never been opened and the original Leitz Wetzlar “L” assembly seal is still intact. The camera comes with an original Bundeswehr Elmar 50 mm f/2.8, Nr. 2326497 with “Y” engraving on the side of the focusing mount.

Olive green Bundeswehr cameras always sell well, but this one, being an M4, is exceptionally rare.

Golden Summicron

Lot 0119 Leitz Summicron 5cm f/2 gold plated, serial number 1474799, 1957. Start price €12,000 – estimated range €20,000-€25,000.

This is an extremely rare version of the early rigid M-mount 5cm Summicron in an original gold-plated finish. All visible parts of the mount are made of solid brass. The weight is 298g compared with the 282g of the regular silver version (in which the chrome-lacquered parts were made of aluminium).

It represents a sample unit to go with the gold-plated Leica M3 camera with serial number 873000, which was dedicated in 1957 to Philippe Tiranty, the then Leitz agent in Paris. The lens, with serial number 1474800, finally delivered with this camera was, in contrast to the model offered here, equipped with a focusing ring covered with leather that matched that on the camera body.

This lens is of a kind commonly known as a ‘Rigid Summicron’. I have one of those and also its close relation, the 5cm Summicron DR (Dual Range – with close up capability) and I can vouch for the quality of these lenses, but I doubt if this one will ever be used for much ‘street photography’.

Leitz Trafficator

Lot 0155 Leitz Trafficator LEIFA, 1927. Start Price €3,000 — estimated range €5,000-€7,000

In 1927, Leitz presented the LEIFA (for LEItz FAhrtrichtungsanzeiger = travel direction indicator) for motor vehicles at the Berlin traffic exhibition. The LEIFA, developed by Leitz designer Hermann Riepert, consisted of a case with an electromotive, rotatable dial with an orange, illuminated arrow. The electromagnetic control could be operated by means of a switch from inside the car. This excursion by Leitz into the motoring world was short-lived: legislators in many countries began to mandate the familiar yellow trafficator arms, one on either side of the vehicle. In the short production time of the LEIFA, only a small number was completed, of which only very few individual specimens are in existence today, making this a great rarity.

Included is the original brochure (Liste Leifa No. 2290), August 1927, stamped “Konstruktion (design department)”.

This item was covered in an earlier Macfilos article.

Russian FED I

Lot 0196. FED I “ Fedka” black paint, serial number 279, 1934. Start price €18,000 – estimated range €35,000-€40,000.

The name FED represents the initials of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, a Soviet revolutionary, who was an early leader of the NKVD, which subsequently became the KGB.

This is a very early FED in black paint finish with a contemporary FED 50 mm f/3.5 lens engraved with serial number 1542 and number 20. The lens flange on the body is engraved with the number 279. The base plate is embossed “3 C-T”. Only very few specimens of the black FED are known to exist today. There are said to be fewer than ten cameras of this type in collections worldwide.

It may surprise some readers that rare early Soviet Leica copies are fetching such high prices since many would consider them to be inferior to ‘real’ Leicas, but there is a definite market for such items which is very buoyant right now.

Moon shots

The next two lots, which involve the moon, can be read together:

Lot 0221 NASA Hasselblad 70mm Magazine “Jim Irwin”, serial number 1039, Start Price €3000 – estimated range €6,000-€8,000.

The important aspect of this story is that the Hasselblad cameras used on the moon were left there to save weight on the return journey and only the film magazines were taken back. This is the original magazine of the Hasselblad camera P/N SEB 33100040 – S/N 1038, which is said to have been used by astronaut Jim Irwin on the lunar surface. It is engraved “P/N SEF 33101018-301 S/N 1039 HASSELBLAD REFLEX CAMERA MAGAZINE“ on the side. This comes with glued-on Velcro fasteners for securing the item in zero gravity. There are eight NASA stickers, including “EARTH OBS” (for “Earth Observation”) and “IF02”, as well as a large grey sticker for handwritten notes on the bottom.

Lot 0223 NASA Apollo 11 Photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong, 1969. Start price €3,000 – estimated range €5,000-€6,000.

This is an original NASA colour photograph featuring astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin standing on the lunar surface, with the lunar module and Neil Armstrong reflecting in his visor. The photograph corresponds to image number AS11-40-5903 and is marked “A Kodak Paper” on the verso. It apparently shows the usual crosses generated by the rousseau plate of the Hasselblad Electric Camera.

This is an 8 x 10 1/4 inch print in modern 31 x 41 cm frame with passepartout. It is always difficult to value prints and I am sure a lot of readers will have seen this image before. What is for sale is not just the image itself, but a copy with a provenance which goes back to the first successful moon landing.

Kershaw Peregrine

Lot 0232 Kershaw Peregrine-III, serial number 4/26055, 1948. Start price €2,400, estimated range €4,500-€5,000

The Kershaw company was established in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1888 as an electrical and scientific instrument maker. The company started to make photographic equipment in the early 1900s and, around that time, it became A Kershaw & Sons Ltd. In 1921, the company became a part of Amalgamated Photographic Manufacturers Ltd which became Soho Ltd around 1930. In 1947 the company was sold to a subsidiary of the Rank Organisation where cameras were made up to the late 1950s.

The camera, which comes with a Taylor-Hobson Adotal 80 mm f/2.8 No. 355906 lens, was for 120 film with 6×6 exposures. The Peregrine-III was produced for only two years and fewer than 400 cameras were manufactured. It is rated as ‘very scarce’ by the Collectiblend website.

Rollei Kineidoscop

Lot 0235 Rollei Kineidoscop Prototype, 1939. Start Price €12,000 – estimated range €20,000-€25,000

This one is an extremely rare prototype of a 35 mm stereo camera by Franke & Heidecke, the manufacturers of Rollei cameras. From the late 1920s onwards, various prototypes were made there, as 35 mm film became more and more popular due to the great success of the Leica camera. The Kineidoscop stereo camera was developed from 1937 onwards and the prototypes improved several times. A sample that was almost ready for serial production was completed in November 1938.

In 1939, Franke and Heidecke decided to start producing the camera. Initially, ten samples were made in order to undertake final adjustments. The beginning of the war ended that work. The samples were kept in a bunker, where they survived the conflict unscathed. After the war, members of the American occupation force took the cameras out of the bunker and took them to the USA. Since then, individual specimens have appeared there from time to time. The personal camera of Heidecke’s wife is said to be the only one that remained in Germany.

This Kineidoscop is equipped with a pair of Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 3,5 cm f/3.5 lenses Nr. 789008 and Nr. 789130 and with the Sucher-Triplet 5,5 cm f/3.2, Nr. 1364305.

The Kineidoscop produces 24x30mm exposures and has a TLR type viewing lens and two taking lenses. Of all the items in this article, this is the one I would most like to see and handle.

Conclusion

I hope that readers will find my selection of items from the catalogue interesting as they cover quite a wide range, from Leicas to ‘trafficators’, from items that were on or originated on the moon to a rare British camera and a TLR type stereo camera. All this and a camera named after one of the founders of the organisation that became the KGB. Not everything in the catalogue is as exotic as these items. Readers are advised to read the very comprehensive catalogue and the auction terms if they are thinking of putting in a bid on any item.

11 COMMENTS

  1. My first camera at the age of 13 was a basic medium format Kershaw then manufactured by J Arthur Rank who had bought the company. I paid for it by saving Kellogg’s cornflakes box tops – despite my parents’ concern for my unique diet. I took it all over Europe and used it to systematically record all the Gothic windows Ruskin noted in the Stones of Venice. I still have all the negatives and they are as good as new ( which is more than I can say about some of my early digital files!)

    • We got lots of things with tokens on cornflakes boxes back in the day. Your point about negatives is well made. Today I was examining some very nice 170 year old waxed calotype negatives which were in very nice condition for their age. I hope to eventually see prints done from these, either by contact printing or some form of ‘safe’ scanning. How will our digital images of today look 170 years from now? Answers on a USB stick, please.

      A friend of mine, who has one of the nicest collections of British cameras that I know, speaks very well about Kershaw cameras and he has a Peregrine and possibly others.

      William

    • With prints there is often a degree of ’emotion’ and ‘sentiment’ on the part of any purchaser and ‘goosebumps ‘are a good start.

      William

  2. .
    “..estimated range €100,000-€120,000..” for an olive green M4. Ahahahahaha! (“..Pass the olive paint, nurse, and that fine camel hair brush, please..”)

    When I met Jim Irwin, I took with me a whole, entire lunar Hasselblad, and he said “Where did you get that? I thought we’d left it on the moon!” because – as you say – they brought back only the film containers, or magazines, and left the rest of the hardware up there!

    I’ve a fairly standard ‘sit-up-and-beg’ FED – the square-ish one with the built-in lightmeter, but with its 50mm lens engraved with distances (in meters) à la aperture numbers, viz; 2 (metres), 2.8 (metres ..!), 4, 5.6, 8, 11, and so on ..and the scale is accurate ..but who on earth – or the moon! – thinks in terms of ‘2.8 metres’..? ..Crazy!

    Leeds – à propos Kershaw – was, for a while, a centre of UK camera, cine-camera and cine projector manufacture: the first known ‘proper’ movie was shot – of Leeds Bridge – by Louis le Prince (in 1888), the Kalee projector company (later Gaumont-Kalee when it, too, was taken over by Rank) built magnificent cinema projectors there. And just up t’road is Bradford, home of what was the UK’s National Photography, Film & Television Museum ..now called the National Media Museum (with Britain’s only Cinerama cinema alongside).

    Of course, those famous northerners Mitchell and Kenyon, of Blackburn, Lancashire, were also pioneers of UK film-making (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_and_Kenyon).

    Coming full circle, Oskar Barnack – inventor of the Leica – was hired by Ernst Leitz to make a movie camera, on the recommendation of Emil Mechau (of Zeiss) who created the (only?) movie projector which kept film moving while being projected, without having to stop and re-start at every frame ..the basis of the telecine machines used for scanning 35mm movies for television!

    ..B-but €100,000-€120,000 for an M4 ..Ahahahahaha!

    • Thanks David. The M4 estimate here is set by a very skilled and knowledgeable Leica Dealer/Auctioneer. If he says it is very rare, then it is very rare. The market will determine the value. This estimate is not just for an M4, but for this M4. We all know where we can get M4s for just a fraction of this price, but the collector thing is about a lot more than the just buying a camera.

      On the FED, there is a definite market for rare early ones and your guess is as good as mine as to where that market might be located. Your FED sounds interesting. Is there an article in it?

      As you enjoyed this one so much, I will do further articles on the upcoming Leitz and Tamarkin auctions. One thing you should note is that with Vendor’s and Purchaser’s Commissions combined, the margin is much greater than on selling cameras at auction than it is on selling new digital cameras.

      William

      • “..Your FED sounds interesting. Is there an article in it?..”

        I’ve a few FEDs and Zorkiis, but whether or not I’ve anything interesting to say about them ..er, probably not!

        I’ll sleep on it, and report back tomorrow..

        • Having slept on it, I’m now reporting back: no, I’ve got nothing interesting to say about FEDs or Zorkiis. Apart from that FED lens having its distances marked, like apertures, as 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6 etcetera! Utterly weird!

          One of the FEDs – indistinguishable from many Zorkiis (..copies of the Leica II, I think..) has three huge knobs; it’s called a ‘Siberia’ edition, and it’s clearly built like that to be used with gloves on!

          The lenses, of course, are interchangeable with Leicas, so you can buy a beat up old Zorkii or FED for threepence, put a Leica lens on it ..and who’s going to know the difference when you look at the photos? (..Many Russian lenses are more contrasty than Leica lenses – which were made for resolution rather than for contrast – following the Zeiss style, so photos with the old FED, Jupiter, Helios, Industar, etc lenses often look ‘sharper’ (..but really just contrastier..) than Leica photos.

          But while Leitz/Leica were wondering “should we actually go wider than 35mm?” the Russians were making – similar to Zeiss’ Hologon design – the Leica-screw-thread ‘Russar’ 20mm f5.6 distortion-free superwide lens, which I have here in my hand. Stephen Gandy of Cameraquest says “..Introduced in 1960, for decades it was the only 20mm lens in screw mount. Hard to get, Russars enjoy a fine reputation as a sharp lens. Russars offer a bargain priced real alternative to what may be a seldom used $2000 20/2.8 Elmarit for your Leica M”.
          ( Cameraquest is at http://www.cameraquest.com/russian.htm )

          Some of the FEDs and Zorkiis are a bit ‘scratchy’ in use; they don’t always have the s-m-o-o-t-h wind-on of Leicas (..just as the ‘Kiev’ copies of old Contaxes usually don’t have the same smooth wind-on as proper Contaxes). But they’re usually terrific bargains – if you’re still into film photography.

          So ..no – as you can tell – I’ve got nothing to say about FEDs ..nor Zorkiis.

          • The man after whom the FED was named might have been surprised to hear HCB say that ‘sharpness is a bourgeois concept’. Collecting may also be a bourgeois concept or, at least, a plutocratic one. How can we otherwise explain the prices paid for early FEDs? At the other end of the scale a young man behind the counter in a camera store in St Petersburg told me some years ago that young Russians could not afford old Leicas and were happy to use FSU cameras.

            William

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here