A outstanding assortment of classic Leica cameras and equipment go beneath the hammer in Chicago this month, marking the one centesimal anniversary of the long-lasting German digital camera model, with estimated costs starting from $50 to tens of hundreds.
Tamarkin Uncommon Digicam Auctions’ forty fourth sale, scheduled for November 15, stands out from typical high-end Leica auctions by providing real accessibility. Whereas headline tons embody pristine examples of the legendary Leica MP and uncommon wartime cameras, the 359-lot catalogue is filled with reasonably priced collectibles that will not break the financial institution.
For photographers inquisitive about Leica historical past, the public sale contains promotional supplies, show stands, and equipment beginning at $50-$100. Classic neckties, lapel pins, and even a 1975 “50 12 months” anniversary banner provide methods to personal a bit of Leica heritage with out spending hundreds.
Much more substantial gadgets stay surprisingly accessible. A number of working Leica III cameras from the Thirties carry estimates of $700-$1,500, whereas full digital camera units with lenses and equipment typically fall inside $1,000-$2,000; affordable costs for classic tools that might nonetheless seize pictures at present.
Centenary connection
Public sale home proprietor Dan Tamarkin has curated this sale particularly to have a good time Leica’s one centesimal anniversary. The corporate first debuted its first 35mm digital camera on the 1925 Leipzig Spring Commerce Truthful, the place Oscar Barnack’s revolutionary “small movie digital camera” remodeled pictures by proving that compact cameras may produce massive, high-quality prints.
The crown jewel of the sale is Lot 359: a 1925 Leica I (Mannequin A) with its authentic Elmax lens, serial quantity 456. This museum-quality piece, estimated at $17,500-$22,500, represents one of many earliest manufacturing Leicas and comes full with its authentic lens cap and presentation field.
Images fanatics will discover quite a few optical curiosities, together with a 65mm Picker X-Ray lens tailored for contemporary cameras ($1,500-$2,500), the ultra-rare 50mm “Compur Summicron” with built-in shutter (fewer than 60 made), and numerous prototype lenses by no means extensively launched.
The public sale options cameras from Leica rivals, too, together with early Nikon rangefinders, Rollei twin-lens cameras, and even a Chinese language “Purple Flag 20”; a government-commissioned Leica copy with fewer than 200 examples produced.
A good portion of {the catalogue}, in the meantime, paperwork a darker chapter in photographic historical past. Dozens of cameras and lenses bear engravings like “Luftwaffen-Eigentum” (German Air Pressure property) or “Wehrmacht Heer” (Military Forces), having served in World Struggle Two.
{The catalogue} additionally highlights the Leitz household’s personal wartime heroism. Whereas manufacturing navy tools beneath Nazi conscription, Ernst Leitz II intentionally employed Jewish staff and transferred them to security on the firm’s New York manufacturing unit; an operation later referred to as the “Leica Freedom Practice” that saved a whole bunch of households. His daughter Elsie was imprisoned for serving to Jewish ladies escape to Switzerland.
Learn how to bid
For collectors and photographers alike, this public sale affords a uncommon alternative to personal useful items of photographic historical past; not simply to show, however doubtlessly to make use of. In any case, many of those century-old Leicas nonetheless work completely, a testomony to the precision engineering that made the model legendary.
Bidding opens at 10am Central Time on November 15. On-line bidders pay a 24% purchaser’s premium, whereas ground and phone bidders pay 19.5%. All gadgets promote “as-is” with no returns, although many have been just lately serviced. You possibly can view the complete public sale catalogue right here.
Take a look at our decide of the greatest Leica cameras on sale at present