Toronto. When we were first organized in the 1970s, Leicas, Zeiss-Ikons and other old cameras were everywhere at reasonable prices. We had red curtain Leicas, K (German for ball bearing) stamped curtains (these shutter worked reliably under very low temperature conditions), black Leicas, “hockey stick” Leicas (the original infinity stop on fixed-lens Leicas – it was removed if the camera ever went back to Leitz for any reason) and those with German military markings, etc. Few books existed on camera history and variations.
Once the buyers began to pay more for the rarer models, the fraudsters crept in and it was buyer beware time. A more common model in good shape was easily “transformed” into a fake rare version and immediately saw a big value increase if sold to the innocent or unwary who had no immediate access to serial number tables and model illustrations.
I chaired our 6th annual fair in the Park Plaza hotel (June 14/15, 1980). Just at closing on the 15th, a little old gentleman came in offering to sell his war memento – a Luftwaffe Leica with a brass bar on the back. Engraved on the bar was the name ‘Hermann Goring‘. The engraving (Luftwaffe), serial number, model type, etc. all appeared genuine to the Leica collector at one table and he bought the camera, showing it to me as he closed up his offerings.
I called him in the States a few days later as I wanted a photograph. He declined my request, telling me although it was a good screw mount camera, authentic in all other ways, the engraving was wrong – the umlaut in ‘Göring’ was missing and such an egotistical German Officer in WW2 would never accept such a spelling error.
The Leitz factory in Wetzlar was spared from Allied bombs and its detailed serial number list became readily available, limiting people flogging fake ‘black Leicas’ at elevated prices to the naive beginner who wanted an authentic black Leica for their collection. As years passed, Russian cameras, based on the Leica, like the Zorki, were transformed with a suitably engraved cover and became a far higher value ‘Leica’. Gold plated versions with rather crude engraving posed as the far more highly valued Leica Lexus. In most cases such fakes were easily spotted by a Leica expert – even a casual one like me.
Note: the title is a riff on Bob Dylan’s 1966 song, “Just Like a Woman“.
