Leitz Auction: A selection of highlights from the June event

This time last year, we were waiting on the auction of Oskar Barnack’s Leica 0 Series No 105 at the Leitz Auction, and we all know how that ended — in a bumper €14m-plus price tag. The auction returned to Vienna last November, and now it is back in Wetzlar on June 10, with many more interesting items on offer, even if nothing this time is of the same potential value as No 105.

Leica Reporter set

This set comprises a Leica III GG Reporter and a Leica Motor MOOEV. The GG is the later model of the 250 Reporter. The earlier FF model had a maximum shutter speed of 1/500s while the GG had a top speed of 1/1000s. Only 92 cameras were fitted with the MOOEV electric motor drive, and these were mainly installed in Luftwaffe STUKA dive bombers to photograph various war-related ‘events’.

Typically, the motor was left in the aircraft, and the camera was taken out to change the film. Many were used in different aircraft over time. This one still has matching numbers for the camera and drive, but it was made after the war and delivered to Amsterdam in 1948. Despite the sometimes war-related use of such cameras, many of them ended up in the 1950s being used by ‘walkies’ photographers at British seaside resorts where their large film capacity was a boon for the operators.

The photographers had to be right on it as regards frame numbering and the issue of numbered tickets to potential customers. I am going to emphasise once again that at top-level auctions such as this, cameras are bought primarily as collectors’ pieces, so the chances of this being used at a seaside resort near you are very slim. The same applies to all the other items in this article.

This very rare item, which is fitted with a Leitz Summitar 5cm f/2 lens, has a starting price of €150,000 at the Leitz Auction and an estimated sale price of €300,000-350,000.

Leica I Model A Anastigmat

The very first production Leicas were what are now called the I Model A Anastigmat models and were issued in 1925 with a five-element 50mm f/3.5 Anastigmat lens designed by Max Berek. The later short-lived Elmax also had five elements, while its successor, the Elmar, had four elements. The Elmar is often referred to as “the lens that made Leica”. All Anastigmat cameras have three-digit serial numbers, this one is 211, and there is a recognised rule in Leica camera collecting that the lower the serial number, the higher the price.

The camera comes with an early ETRIN case with ribbed ‘EPI’ leather. It also has a double cassette holder and a FILCA film cassette.

These cameras are very much sought after by collectors. This one will start at €40,000 at the Leitz Auction, with an estimate of €80,000-100,000.

Black-paint Leica M3

This item is a black-paint Leica M3 which belonged to British Photographer John Bulmer. It comes with a black-paint 50mm Summicron lens and a copy of Bulmer’s photo book, The North, which includes photographs taken by John in the North of England, such as this one from Manchester in 1977. This particular photograph is in the Photo Auction, which takes place the day before the Leitz Auction.

The catalogue describes the M3 camera as having a ‘very attractive patina’. One significant thing about black-paint Leicas, which have a dedicated and obviously wealthy following, is that often the state of decomposition of the finish can be regarded as a ‘desirable feature’. Those who don’t understand this need not apply, I suppose, but the entry fee is very high anyway.

This camera has a start price of €40,000 and an estimate of €80,000-100,000.

The photograph has a much more modest start price of €1,200 and an estimate of €1,600-1,800. When it comes to toys versus art, the toys usually win. But when it comes to the top end of the art market, the art can become a toy itself. If this were an exam paper, I could follow this with a ‘please discuss’. One answer to this might be that ‘toys’ can be ‘tools’, but the black-paint premium might defeat the argument in this case.

Walker Evans trilogy

Here is the first of three lots at the Leitz Auction involving the famous US Photographer Walker Evans, who is best known for his work with writer James Agee on the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, documenting the lives of tenant farmers during and after the Great Depression.

The lot alludes to and includes a later book by Evans called Message From the Interior, which was published in 1966. What also makes this item interesting is that a late Leica IIIc from 1950 is here matched with two lovely Nikon (Nippon Kogaku) lenses, a 2.1cm f/4 Nikkor-O lens with a 21mm Leitz finder and a 3.5cm f/2.5 W-Nikkor C lens.

This could well be my favourite lot in this group. It starts at €6,000 and has an estimate of €12,000-14,000.

Staying with Walker Evans, this gelatine silver print titled Penny Picture Display, Savannah 1936, is for sale in the Photograph Auction, which takes place on June 9 in Wetzlar. This goes back to 1936, the period of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The photo has always bemused and confused me as here we have a highly skilled photographer using images of people taken by a local photographer in order to create a commentary on photography. It is said that he arranged contact sheets this way and added the word STUDIO to create something which questioned the distinction between documentary and art photography. In common with an earlier item, this could be the subject of a ‘please discuss’ exam question, particularly in regard to the appropriation aspect.

The print starts at €4,000 with an estimate of €7,000-€8,000.

The final part of this Walker Evans trilogy is this attractive black-paint Leica M2 with a Leitz Summicron 35mm lens. He bought the camera in 1962 and used it until the early 1970s when he switched to using a Polaroid instant camera. The lot has poise and provenance and comes with this book by Jerry Thompson, The Last Years of Walker Evans.

I really like this way of combining photos and books with camera lots and also presenting related lots in the photograph auction. It gives a much broader dimension to what the photographer has done with their equipment and brings what might otherwise be mere artefacts back to life.

The lot has a start price of €30,000 and an estimate of €60,000-70,000.

Next, instead of three associated lots, we have here a brace of prototypes relating to the original Leica CL camera.

Leica CL duology

This camera is a unique prototype of the CL in black paint, which varies from the production model in several ways, including being more compact. The unique aspect is the 50mm f/2 Summicron lens which is one of a kind, with an optical formula which has nothing else like it in the Leica lineup. Many readers will know that the standard production lens for this camera was a 40mm f/2 Summicron.

It is always very difficult to price unique prototypes. At the Leitz Auction, this one will start at €100,000 with an estimate of €200,000-300,000.

The other half of the duo is this Leica MC Prototype 3. It is closer to the production CL but has many different features, including a meter window on the top. The lens is an f/2.8 version of the eventual production 40mm optic. These sometimes come up at auction and fetch quite a bit of money compared to the production f/2 lens. The lot comes with a technical design drawing of the lens, which is partially seen in the photo above.

This one is closer to the production model, and it comes with a lower price expectation, starting at €50,000 and has an estimate of €100,000-150,000.

Pick of lenses

To finish this article, I have chosen just two fascinating lenses from the line-up at the Leitz Auction.

This is a nice little Elcan 1-3/8th inch (35mm) f/2 lens. Elcan stands for ‘Ernst Leitz Canada’. Leica cameras and lenses were produced there for many years. Many of the orders came from military sources, and these were usually designated as Elcan rather than Leica. In this case, the lens is one of two prototypes for the US Navy, which have a different design to the production Leica lenses. Rare Elcan items often fetch a premium in comparison with their nearest Leica equivalents.

The start price, in this case, is €40,000 with an estimate of €80,000-100,000

This Nikkor 13mm f/5.6 AI-S is a record holder of sorts as it is the widest non-distorting professional SLR lens ever made. Non-distorting, I assume, means that it is not a fisheye. The lens was in production from 1976 to 1998 but was made only to order, so it is extremely rare.

The start price is €30,000 with an estimate of €60,000-70,000.

Leitz Auction Catalogue

This is just a small selection of the items that will be in the upcoming Leitz Auction. As I write this, the main catalogue should be out within a few weeks. Even if you are not intending to bid, it would be worthwhile to look at it as an exercise in studying the history of photography. You never know, but you might see something that could tempt you to bid.

Read more from William Fagan

Read about previous camera auctions

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