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Original Leica olympiada Berlin 1936 for sale on ebay!


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Denis Laney states in his excellent "Leica Collectors Guide" Second edition (2005)  that...

 

Quoted direct from page 35...

 

It seems that most camera intended for official use were sent to a government purchasing agency in Berlin. Any additional engraving was done after the cameras were handed over, probably by the service concerned. The exception was the Luftwaffe who were major users of Leica cameras and bought at least a proportion of them direct from the factory. In this case Leitz engraved "Luftwaffen-Eigentum" (Airforce property) on the back rim of the top-plate and added what is now believed to be the military stores number "Fl. No 38079" or "Fl. No 38078" below the top-plate engraving. These were mainly IIIc's, but a number of IIIb's were also supplied in this way. There is also an "L" after the serial numbers in the factory registers. The other services nearly always used the top of the top-plate for their engravings. Army Leicas might be marked "Heer" (Army) or "W.H." (Wermacht Heer). Naval Leicas were usually restricted to an "M" for marine (Navy), sometimes followed by a serial number. The navy was the only service which sometimes also engraved a Reichsadler (a swastika surmounted by an eagle) on the top left-hand corner of the top-plate. "W. haven" is also found, for the navel base at Wilhelmshaven.

 

John

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Another publication worth looking at is the book by Dr Luigi Cane entitled 'Screwmount cameras with military engravings (WWII)' which is published by Leica Historica in Germany. It is basically a list of all of the serial numbers of the relevant cameras and lenses with some photos at the end of the book. It is possibly not definitive in the sense that there may be some genuine items which are not in the book, but one can be pretty certain that an item is genuine if its serial number is in the book and has not been altered. I hope that makes sense.

 

William

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