Oskar Barnack’s 0-Series Leica No. 105

[raydm6]

Oskar Barnack’s 0-Series Leica camera expected to fetch over $3M at the next Leitz Photographica Auction

Expected to fetch € 2.000.000 – 3.000.000. Gorgeous specimen! Notice the inscription on the top of the finder.

 

[raydm6]

 

[Ambro51]

......so much for spelling the Mans name “Oskar”. Next post someone will bring up that it will need a CLA. 🙂

 

[raydm6]

Bummer, a typo on the viewfinder? 😱

 

[Fjäll]

Bummer, a typo on the viewfinder? 😱

Better to change the title rather than the viewfinder inscription

 

[farlymac]

Obviously cobbled together from a Zorki. 😛 No, truthfully, we should all pool together our resources and win the auction, then put it on display at the Head Bartenders business so we can all have a chance to ogle and breath in its essence, or pass it around like they do the Stanley Cup.

PF

 

[Johngwill]

Bummer, a typo on the viewfinder? 😱

Actually the spelling "Oscar" is correct if you visit his gravestone in Wetzlar cementary.

 

[Dralowid]

Worth noting that on this camera the viewfinder is directly in line with the lens, on later cameras it gets moved over to one side. But then it may not be the first viewfinder fitted, the first might have been one that folds.

 

[raydm6]

Actually the spelling "Oscar" is correct if you visit his gravestone in Wetzlar cementary.

Ok thanks for that. So this is a mystery. Leica's website returned 16 results for Oskar, and 1 result for 'Oscar' for a short article written by 'Oscar Anrather'. Go figure. And it's mostly Oskar across the internet. I wonder if Oskar is just an accepted variant?

Here's a 1932 patent and it's spelled 'Oskar' (as are all the others):
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2041632A/en

 

[Vince Lupo]

I'll add another wrinkle to the Oskar / Oscar dilemma -- at the Oskar Barnack memorial in Wetzlar. Hmm.


Me and Oskar by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[Johngwill]

Ok thanks for that. So this is a mystery. Leica's website returned 16 results for Oskar, and 1 result for 'Oscar' for a short article written by 'Oscar Anrather'. Go figure. And it's mostly Oskar across the internet. I wonder if Oskar is just an accepted variant?

You are correct the spelling Oskar is used for the majority of articles about Barnack. It seems the spelling Oskar is German, Polish, Slovene and Scandinavian form of the name Oscar which is from old English/Irish, so therefore it seems strange that the spelling on his gravestone is Oscar, you would think the German spelling would be used.

 

[raydm6]

Thanks Vince & John. I like it with the "K" 🙂

An explanation:

From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_(given_name)

Cognates

• Austrian German, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Scandinavian, Slovenian, Swedish, Swiss German: Oskar.
  • Icelandic: Óskar.
• Catalan: Òscar.[SUP][6][/SUP]
• Danish, Dutch, English, French, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish: Oscar.
  • Spanish: Óscar.

 

[raydm6]

Beautiful handwritten letter from Herr Barnack - a bit hard to tell - 'C' or 'K' - at the bottom:
https://www.lhsa.org/blog/2020/12/th...arnack-the-pix

 

[boojum]

The explanation is simple. He knew how to design a camera but could not spell his name. Sheesh. Or, some troublemaker, not Oskar, bought and placed the gravestone.

 

[leicapixie]

It seems to me incredulously and unfathomable that the camera that Oskar Barnack made and used would be sold! The name on VF is a worry? More data needed. The letter copy would be difficult to read. Germany and later used Gothic script!

 

[jsrockit]

Wow, people said 2-3 million euros was crazy and it ended up going for more than 14 million.

 

[Out to Lunch]

No doubt his original birth certificate will sell for another US$ 15 million. Cheers, OtL

 

[Andrea Taurisano]

Hammerprice 14.400.000 Euros. It wasn't me alas.

 

[das]

My first and strongest reaction to this is disgust. Unless it is to be used in a museum and/or for educational purposes.

 

[santino]

Sick times we have to live in. The buyer is off course anonymous?