Leitz Photographica Auction: Half million record price for military Leica M4

The results of last Saturday’s 41st Leitz Photographica Auction are now in and make for some interesting reading.

This year saw bidders from all over the world compete for rarities and collectables from the world of photography, such as a series of edition prints of an unknown Marilyn Monroe from 1949, which was auctioned off for the Austrian charity “Licht ins Dunkel” (“Light into Darkness”), as well as various military cameras from Leica – some of which sold for 21 times their estimated price.

William Fagan took us through his picks for both the hardware auction and photography sale earlier this month.

Top price camera

The top price at the auction was for a German military M4 which had been estimated at €300,000-€350,000 but achieved a price of €540,000, including buyer’s premium.

It is the highest price ever recorded for a military-green M4, according to Alexander Sedlak of the auction house: “This is likely to have been the most expensive military camera ever sold at auction”.

Biggest surprise

British Marine Leica IIIa
British Marine Leica IIIa
Royal Navy 'Admiralty NP'
Royal Navy ‘Admiralty NP’

Two cameras used by the British military were the subject of outstandingly fierce bidding contests. The Leica IIIa British Marine (serial number 198047) had been estimated at only 1,600 to 2,000 euros but achieved a final price of 43,200 euros (including buyer’s premium). Two bidders, one attending online, his opponent on the phone, engaged in a highly exciting duel for the camera made in 1936. A similar competition ensued for the subsequent lot, the Leica Standard Royal Navy ‘Admiralty NP’ (serial number 277758) which had an estimate of 4,000 to 5,000 euros – was eventually auctioned for 36,000 euros (including buyer’s premium). “They know each other! This isn’t about the cameras at all,” joked auctioneer Wolfgang Pauritsch before striking the gavel.

Camera auction results in euro

Photographs results in euro

Press Release




13 COMMENTS

  1. That’s your choice, Williams. Thanks
    I understand (more or less) people pay a fortune for something called 105. The same some other another fortune for a Marilyn pair of shoes. Not about utility, obviously. About modern Leica cameras, they are influenced by 105 wake and M “philosophy” (if you allow that term) and the vast amount of them existing. And that’s partly good and partly bad IMO

    • There are lots of layers in this, too many to into here. The price paid for No 105 is an outlier and won’t affect auction prices generally, nor will it have any affect on the price of new Leica gear. I’m sure you won’t do this, but the only way to fully understand what happens at auctions is to study them in advance and then to follow them online, you don’t have to bid. I detect that you may not really approve of all of this and that is fine with me. Auctions like this are outside the normal everyday interests and lives of most people and really are peripheral even to photography as an art or process (take your pick). One of my earliest articles for Macfilos, about 5 or 6 years ago, was about the camera auction process. Very little has, in fact, changed since then.

      William

      • Not affect in new gear price but it does in Leica world and the way buyers of new gear affront it. When you say very little has, in fact, changed since then, you can tell the same about new gear in comparison with old cameras: M mount, rangefinder; that’s it: Leica core. An exclusive world that auctions reaffirm as such.

  2. Thanks George. There are Leicas that sell for €200 and Leicas that sell for €2 million. I own a large number of Leicas and I don’t perceive any mystique about them. Some are worth more than others, but that has nothing to do with anything that can’t be explained. If any ‘philosophy’ exists it is a degree of ‘design philosophy’ where the connection between an original Leica 0 Series and a Leica M11 can immediately be recognised. However the 0 series from 1922/23 is worth vastly more in monetary value than the M11 from 2022, but the M11 from 2022 definitely has more utility value. People who are genuine collectors don’t buy cameras to show them off. Most of what they have does not see the light of day let alone see the ‘mean streets’. The person who bought No 105 for €14.4 million has not been identified and I don’t believe they would want to be identified. People who pose with Leicas or just take photos of them beside fancy cups of coffee are generally not collectors. Usually the only people I tell about about my collection items are fellow collectors or the audience for an article about historical cameras, such as here at Macfilos. In my country when people make a bit of money they usually buy racehorses rather than fancy cameras.

    William

  3. I have the same lens in an M7, and the combo is even better than that top price. Promise. I make a special discount for you than the 5fortyzerozerozero if interested. Just contact me. Thanks

    • Thanks George. I have 3 of those lenses, two with M Mount and one with LTM (screw mount). The value is not in whether something is a ‘better camera’, but in whether it is rare or desirable, preferably both. I am sure I have said this here many times before.

      William

          • It seems owning a Leica is further the matter. No doubt there’s something like a philosophy different for instance than Fuji philosophy. When owning a Fujifilm camera you just have a good camera. If you own a Leica, pride and history seems to be in the box (and in the price). That’s philosophy.
            The fact that camera is so expensive is because you pay 99 % of that price in a kind of stuff attached to that philosophy. Desire for it comes together with love for the philosophy. A very rare Fuji camera of that same year would be attached to Fuji philosophy, that’s it just an old good camera.
            Done, is that so good 😊?

  4. Wow! Maybe William can let me know the Pantone paint colour of the military M4 so I can buy an M4 to put in auction.😅

    • Brian, if you look at items 218, 216 and 219 of the catalogue you will see the olive green (dark and light) of the Bundeswehr items. 218 is the M4 shown above, 216 is an M3 which sold for a mere €228,000, but the ‘piece de resistance’ is No 219, a green leather ever ready case for the M4, which sold (I hope you are sitting down) for €18,000! I am reliably informed that the purchasers of the olive green items are usually Asian and not German. It seems that Olive Green is the new Black Paint.

      William

  5. Thanks Mike. I just want to add one piece here which has a tale to tell. Item No 23 in this auction was Leica No 125 , a 0 series camera which had been converted to a Standard around 1955, which was sold for €11,400 on an estimate of €2,000-2,400. The last 0 Series sold was No 105 which sold in June for a world record price of €14.4 million, largely because of is association with Barnack. If the camera had not been ‘upgraded’ in 1955 it might have sold for the ‘normal’ 0 Series price of €2-3 million. Also the original Anastigmat lens had been replaced with a Summicron. If that had been still on the camera the lot would have fetched a much higher price.

    I bought a Leica with a British made Dallmeyer 4″ telephoto lens at the auction. I now have two Leicas with Dallmeyers and one with a Ross lens, also British. The earliest interchangeable lens Leicas were adapted in Britain in the late 1920s to take these lenses and also the German Meyer Kino Plasmat f1.5. Leitz did not produce an interchangeable lens camera until 1930 – the I Model C, non standardised followed by the standardised version. My 3 cameras with British lenses are standardised (one had previously been a I Model A), but I would like to pick up an original I Model A conversion some day. Unfortunately, they are as rare as hens’ teeth, with prices to match. I have quite a few I Model As that I could get adapted for the British lenses, of course, but that would not be the same thing. I will write a piece for Macfilos about all of this.

    William

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