100 years Null-Serie

[willeica]

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4 hours ago, tfey said:

Yes, not sure the earlier rply went thru.  I will be in Germany 10/10 to 10/22 first with Bill's group then the LSI annual meeting.  Looking foreard to seeing everyone agaon.

Tom, I am going to Wetzlar on the 15th or 16th, the Board meeting, which I must attend, is on the 17th. I'm not going to the Celebration of Photography event the week before, even though I had an invitation. This will be my 6th visit to Wetzlar and I was last there just 4 weeks ago. We do need to organise a visit of a small group to the archive, outside of the general visits by the conference attendees, where we can look up relevant material in the presence of someone from Leitz Park staff. I am liaising with Bill Rosauer about how we can organise this and the questions we should ask. I have already given the archive about 90 pages of material which I got from Roland some time ago, but they have absolutely no one to deal with this, so we must do it ourselves.

1 hour ago, beoon said:

Tom,

Thank you for sharing more information on No 114 and the associated information on Charles Messer.

I live in Scotland and in the mid 1990's I contacted George Carr about servicing an M3 I had at the time, he lived about 15 miles from where I lived.

George Carr was a founder member of the The Leica Historical Society, which was set up in Britain at an inaugural meeting in 1969.

The first newsletter issued by this society appeared in December 1972 (I only have a reprint), but in this first issue there is an article "A description of the 0 series Leica" by Malcolm Taylor (with assistance from George Carr). As part of this article 0 series No's 104 and 116 are shown along with an 0 series with the body shell removed (it does not state which number this relates to). In June 1996 The Leica Historical Society newsletter reported the passing of George Carr and on the cover of this issue it has a photograph of an Anastigmat lens dismantled, it also states this was part of a restoration of 0 series number 113 by George Carr in September 1969.

I am assuming these 0 series cameras (104,113 & 116) were owned at some point by founder members of The Leica Historical Society.

Alan

 

The person who will know where most of the existing 0 Series cameras are is Lars Netopil. He has the one that is due to be auctioned next, No 121, and he will have been looking out for all of the others. I would be surprised if he does not know where they all are.

I have been told that No 104 is in the collection of a prominent European collector, but I was asked not to reveal his name. I was asked to advise on the descriptions of the other Leica items in his collection and I was shown photos of them, but no photos of No 104 were forthcoming, so I only have someone's word for this.

As Tom infers, these things have become dangerously expensive and they should not be displayed 'in plain sight', without significant security. 

William 

[pedaes]

57 minutes ago, tfey said:

really good security system

Always thinking like a good underwriter!

[tfey]

These are very difficult to read, but they are photos of the shipping logs from Leitz for No. 101 thru No. 129.  These are in the archives at Wetzlar.  I believe they were taken in 2018 during the LHSA Annual Meeting.  Again they are difficult to read, especially our beloved No. 114, but they at least document No. 101 thru No. 129.

Tom

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[tfey]

7 minutes ago, pedaes said:

Always thinking like a good underwriter!

How did you know?  I am retiring the end of the year after 57 years as an insurance agent in the State of Ohio!  Too funny!

[Edward Schwartzreich]

3 hours ago, pedaes said:

n 1969 113 was owned by Rolf Fricke as mentioned in the article (Newsletter 1) to which you refer. The Fricke Collection is in a storeroom in the Museum in Leitz Park as mentioned earlier in this thread, but sans 113!

Nr. 113 was sold earlier and is not in the Leitz Park / Fricke Collection, to the best of my knowledge.  No idea who owns it.

 

Ed

[pedaes]

1 hour ago, tfey said:

are very difficult to read

Tom, all these images are coming through as very small files - reproduced at about 2.5 inches square on I-mac. Can you increase file size?

You might want to consider 'premium member' option, see Banner at top of page, which will give you a decent size option for images and get rid of all the adverts.

[tfey]

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[tfey]

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[tfey]

OK, sorry but I am learning today.  Upgraded to Premium Member to have the extra capacity.  Please let me know if I need to repost the earlier photos or if they are OK as they are.

Many thanks for the warm welcome.

Tom

[tfey]

Two more Oscar (Oskar) photos.  Someone engraved his name on the viewfinder of the No. 105 and spelled "Oskar" "Oscar"  There was an article in the LSI Viewfinder Magazine about the spelling of the name.  In a conversation about this with Dr. Kaufmann, he said he had seen his birth certificate, and it was "Oscar" on that.  Below is a photo of his grave in Wetzlar, and it is "Oscar" on that.  Also attached is a photo of his home in Wetzlar. Tom

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[willeica]

45 minutes ago, tfey said:

Two more Oscar (Oskar) photos.  Someone engraved his name on the viewfinder of the No. 105 and spelled "Oskar" "Oscar"  There was an article in the LSI Viewfinder Magazine about the spelling of the name.  In a conversation about this with Dr. Kaufmann, he said he had seen his birth certificate, and it was "Oscar" on that.  Below is a photo of his grave in Wetzlar, and it is "Oscar" on that.  Also attached is a photo of his home in Wetzlar. Tom

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Ottmar Michaely has a copy of his birth cert (Bill Rosauer can show it to you)and it is written in very old script and it is hard to figure out if it is a ‘c’ or a ‘k’ . I found what appeared to be a copy of his wedding cert from 1904 in the documentation that came with No 105 and that shows his name spelt as ‘Oscar’ and, of course, his grave carries ‘Oscar’. His son Conrad always referred to his father as ‘Oscar’. Barnack, however, signed his name as ‘Oskar’ throughout his working life. None of this is conclusive, but some of this might explain why No 105 was engraved with ‘Oscar Barnack’. 

That ‘which is right?’ bird has flown and the market has valued the item at a very high price.

Thanks for the pages which you have posted. 

William 

[tfey]

Well, the tombstone is forever, so I don't really know the answer.  I do know he was a very talented person, and I will be forever thankful for the things he created that I take such pleasure in using today. Thank  you, Sir! Tom

[derleicaman]

10 hours ago, beoon said:

As an aside to the Null Series, in 1909 Oscar Barnack also designed and patented the Montblanc Pix mechanical pencil. He was sent one of these pencils by August Leistenschneider in 1933. They worked together at Zeiss and later at Wetzlar where he was shown “his first model of the Leica in 1924” (Ulf Richter 2015). I have a Montblanc Pix from the 1930’s and use it to take notes.

 

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Alan, have you seen my article in Viewfinder about Barnack’s contributions to the mechanical pencil that culminated in the patent obtained by Leistenschneider and later sale to Montblanc who named it PIX?

[derleicaman]

4 hours ago, willeica said:

Ottmar Michaely has a copy of his birth cert (Bill Rosauer can show it to you)and it is written in very old script and it is hard to figure out if it is a ‘c’ or a ‘k’ . I found what appeared to be a copy of his wedding cert from 1904 in the documentation that came with No 105 and that shows his name spelt as ‘Oscar’ and, of course, his grave carries ‘Oscar’. His son Conrad always referred to his father as ‘Oscar’. Barnack, however, signed his name as ‘Oskar’ throughout his working life. None of this is conclusive, but some of this might explain why No 105 was engraved with ‘Oscar Barnack’. 

That ‘which is right?’ bird has flown and the market has valued the item at a very high price.

Thanks for the pages which you have posted. 

William 

I obtained various copies of Barnack’s birth certificate and marriage license from Oscar Fricke. I used these and show many interesting other artifacts in an article for Viewfinder about the spelling of Barnack’s first name. Oskar with a “C” or a “K”?
I also discuss theories about why 105 was engraved Oscar on the finder.

I will post links to this article and the PIX article tomorrow.

[Matlock]

12 hours ago, tfey said:

Peter, your posting did not display fully, i.e. you had to click on "expand" to see the photo of the pe, and read the rest of posting.  When wrote "I have a couple and use one regularly", silly me, I initially thought you were saying you have several of the Leica Serie "O" cameras and used one regularly.  That would have been spectacular, and I was hoping you had a really good security system. <g>

Tom

We can all dream Tom.

[tfey]

📷 😏 I am just blessed that I can drive across town any day and see one! Take care. Tom

[beoon]

4 hours ago, derleicaman said:

Alan, have you seen my article in Viewfinder about Barnack’s contributions to the mechanical pencil that culminated in the patent obtained by Leistenschneider and later sale to Montblanc who named it PIX?

I have not seen it Bill, if you could tell me which issue it was published that would be very much appreciated 

[Matlock]

2 hours ago, beoon said:

I have not seen it Bill, if you could tell me which issue it was published that would be very much appreciated 

Volume 53, issue 3 (Fall 2020). Well worth a read.

[Roland Zwiers]

What name on page 115 of Oskar Barnack's worknotes?

In the column '2 loaner cameras' there is a name that is not crossed out, but that I still cannot read.
It is the first name that is not crossed-out.

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The same name also occurs in the column of the left.
It is below 'Zack' and 'Becker' and above 'Lehr'.

  

Now the capital looks like an 'S' or an 'L', but probably stand for a 'G'.
Oskar Barnack wrote the capital 'G' in this way.
Compare the way he writes 114, Prof. Klute, Giessen

 

If the surname starts with 'G', then I have a problem with the stroke above the last syllable.
In Oskar Barnack's handwriting such a stroke usually occurs above the letter 'u'.
But there are not many German family names that start with 'G', that have three or four syllables, and that end on a syllable that contains the letter 'u'.
I can only think of 'Gregorius'.
Yet I struggle to read 'Gregorius' in Oskar Barnack's handwriting.

There are a few other possibilities.
The name starting with 'G' is not a German family name, but of foreign origin.
The name starting with 'G' is not a family name, but a company name.

One additional possibility is that the delivery book 'Kamera' can help me out.
It seems that most names that occur on page 115 of Oskar Barnack's work notes ultimately also appear in the delivery book.
This is another short, specific and focussed question for our visit to the Leitz archive!

 

Roland

 

 

 

 

 

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Hallo,

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[derleicaman]

7 hours ago, Matlock said:

Volume 53, issue 3 (Fall 2020). Well worth a read.

Thanks for the link. Glad you enjoyed it!