About Leica and Serial Numbers

[royalrat]

It was and it’s still is a dream to hold a Leica camera in your hands and use it as a tool for taking pictures. Ever since I’ve started my Photographic Time Tunnel journey I was hearing about Leica cameras, held by legendary photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andreas Feninger and even the Israelis Alex Levac and David Rubinger. One story that captivated my imagination was about a Leica without a serial number. I’ve heard it from Aaron Gurevich, a camera collector I once met, who knew the owner of that unique Leica. The story, that sounds much like an urban legend, is about a Jewish war survivor who lived in Germany after WWII and was treated at the Red Cross hospital near Wetzlar. As a patient who was enjoying the benefits of the Red Cross health care, he was given a weekly amount of cigarettes packages. I believe that in those days they knew less about the negative effects of smoking, so this guy could enjoy the positive effect while relaxing on his balcony. Getting cigarettes in those post-war days was a very difficult thing, so one of his neighbors who had a hard time living without smoking, made a deal with him: The neighbor will receive one package of cigarettes a week, and in return he will give that Jewish patient a part of a camera, that he will steal from the factory where he was working. Luckily for the both of them, the patient didn’t need so much cigarettes and he thought that a camera could be a cool thing to have, so he agreed to go forward with his neighbor’s deal. And so the weeks passed, when one could smoke again, and the other collected camera parts. After a few months the neighbor requested a double package of cigarettes and in return he delivered the outer shell of the camera – the body. At the following weekend, with all the camera parts in hand, the neighbor sat and assembled the camera, exactly as he was doing at the factory. The camera was a Leica, and since it didn’t leave the factory doors as a product, it didn’t held a serial number. Many years has passed and the Jew left Germany and moved to Israel. By the late 70th he sold the camera to a photographer and camera collector by the name of Ezriel Kalman.

The full story and photos at:
http://yanivberman.com/2012/08/18/leica-i/

 

[johannielscom]

Great story.


Interesting camera! What rattled my chain was: the production of this model was ended in 1936, and no camera's ever left the factory in shiny chrome.


But, if it was smuggled out from surplus parts from the repair stock, that might explain the fact that it was assembled post-war, and possibly left the factory in brass and was chromed later.

This theory would explain the body shell being done with that model-correct leather instead of vulcanite, and the brushed chrome knobs. Those were done by the factory.

It would take a camera repairman to access the innards to decide whether the camera is a real Leica.



But let's not go there and simply enjoy the story!

 

[royalrat]

Great story.


Interesting camera! What rattled my chain was: the production of this model was ended in 1936, and no camera's ever left the factory in shiny chrome.


But, if it was smuggled out from surplus parts from the repair stock, that might explain the fact that it was assembled post-war, and possibly left the factory in brass and was chromed later.

This theory would explain the body shell being done with that model-correct leather instead of vulcanite, and the brushed chrome knobs. Those were done by the factory.

It would take a camera repairman to access the innards to decide whether the camera is a real Leica.



But let's not go there and simply enjoy the story!

Sorry, the picture here is misleading. I never saw the Leica who left the factory without serial number. The camera in the photo is a Leica I with serial no. 671 from 1925.

Yaniv.

 

[HuubL]

Sorry, the picture here is misleading. I never saw the Leica who left the factory without serial number. The camera in the photo is a Leica I with serial no. 671 from 1925.

Yaniv.

Interesting camera indeed and a nice story in your link. Everything fits for a Leica I of this vintage, except for the shiny chrome. Originally the body was black enamel paint. The chroming was probably done quite some time ago as the brass is shining through at the top right front and this looks as if caused by long-time handling. Are the knobs still nickel or have these been chromed also? And I'm surprised that the early number (671) is still visible. These numbers were etched in the paint and filled with Wood's metal, an alloy of cadmium, bismuth and lead that melts at relatively low temperatures.
There's no stop screw preventing the lens to screw off of the body. I guess that's why one of the photos shows the lens removed from the camera. It's an unnumbered Elmar. Would this have been the lens that originally came with the camera? The low body number indicates that it could have originally been delivered with an Elmax.

 

[royalrat]

Interesting camera indeed and a nice story in your link. Everything fits for a Leica I of this vintage, except for the shiny chrome. Originally the body was black enamel paint. The chroming was probably done quite some time ago as the brass is shining through at the top right front and this looks as if caused by long-time handling. Are the knobs still nickel or have these been chromed also? And I'm surprised that the early number (671) is still visible. These numbers were etched in the paint and filled with Wood's metal, an alloy of cadmium, bismuth and lead that melts at relatively low temperatures.
There's no stop screw preventing the lens to screw off of the body. I guess that's why one of the photos shows the lens removed from the camera. It's an unnumbered Elmar. Would this have been the lens that originally came with the camera? The low body number indicates that it could have originally been delivered with an Elmax.

You gave me here a lot of information for research. I don't know much about the history of the parts of the camera. It belongs to a professional photographer so I guess he knew how to work on the camera when it had to be fixed. I'm more interested in the historic side of the story. But the questions you raise here are interesting.