Besides eBay, there are few other places that have specialized in Leica auctions. The most famous auction house dealing with Leica equipment is Westlicht Auctions located in Vienna, Austria. They have an upcoming auction on May 29, 2010. Some of the more interesting items (complete list available here):
“Italian or French (?) spy outfit of Leica Standard body with Elmar 3.5/5cm, very interesting mechanism built by high standard built in a brown ladies handbag”
“Completely destroyed by fire camera of Prof. Dr. Ankel from Darmstadt (name engravings on top plate still visible). Dr.Ankel received a new camera by Dr.Ludwig Leitz.”
“Genius design of a 18x24mm half-frame camera by Leitz developer Adam Wagner, the concept was to built a camera that was still smaller, more convenient to use and simpler to operate. For some reasons this forward-looking camera with slide-out lens feature was never put in production, only approx. 3 prototypes are known to exist, this particular camera comes from the Leitz Museum.”
Images and text credit: Westlicht-Auction – while there check also the Daguerréotype Giroux (from 1839) – the first commercially produced camera in the world. The estimated selling price is between 500.000 – 700.000 Euros.
Update: here is another rare Leica M6 at Christies:
More after the break:
There is another smaller auction house in Germany that also deals with rare Leica pieces:
