Contax IIa (563/24) ’Zeiss Ikon’

According to Hans-Jurgen Kuc - "On the Trail of the Contax"
This is a special version - reason unknown, perhaps to commemorate the 25th year of the founding of Zeiss-Ikon . The camera is probably the U Series from 1951 or 52
 
The 25 year hypothesis is only based on the production time frame - there are no documents that link the one with the other. Given that they promoted no anniversary edition, that link will have been loose at the very best.

My guess is that it was intended to be a permanent branding enhancement (probably all across the product line, at least across all their higher value products - I have a Mess Ikonta with that logo, and also have seen Super Ikontas). Perhaps it was prompted by the anniversary, but it may as well have been a mere coincidence. As the white stamped logos on leather rapidly turned grey from sweat and grease, they were dropped again after a while for failing the intended effect.
 
The Zeiss Compendium says that the logo on the body leather was to signify the anniversary of Zeiss Ikon.

However, I can certainly understand that this might not be true, given the similar placement of the logo on other models, including the folding Contina II and the Mess Ikonta.

I know that on the Zeiss Ikon Collectors Group on Yahoo, they've been trying to catalog the serial numbers of these so-called anniversary models.
 
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I have a camera catalog from American department store Montgomery Ward dated 1954 that has a Contax IIa with the ZI logo on the front cover of the catalog. Not sure what this means as far as the 25th anniversary date, but it seems odd to me to put a 3 year old anniversary edition camera on the cover of a catalog of current offerings.
 
My IIIa has the Zeiss Ikon logo stamped in the leather on the back and in the accessory shoe. I thought they all had that. isn't Zeiss the manufacturer? Isn't the Contax just part of the broader Zeiss-Ikon line of cameras?
 
the link in the first post shows a camera with the ZI logo next to the self-timer on the front of the camera body. This logo is in addition to the ones that you mention.
 
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I havw one . number is u 2171...
Len is nikkor-s.c 5cm F1.4... very sharp len...
 
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