Leica Camera AG has twitted a few days ago about its most fascinating item regarding the upcoming 37th Leitz Photographica auction. It’s the E. Leitz New York Leica Gun Rifle from 1938, which carries an estimated price tag of $230,000-$290,000. Read below about this unique piece (and extremely expensive) of camera gear.
The 37th Leitz Photographica auction
The 37th auction by Leitz includes diverse camera items from 178 years of camera history (1840 – 2018). The auction will take place on 21. November 2020 at 11:00 am CET at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna. The Leitz Photographica Auction, former WestLicht Photographica Auction, has become the biggest auction house for cameras in the world since established in 2002. As stated by the organizers: “Our international network of dealers and collectors enables us to offer you the most interesting and sought after pieces of camera history. More than 22.000 lots were sold to aficionados and collectors in the past 35 Camera Auctions.
Camera for 2,160,000 Euro
The Leitz auction prices are not for the faint-hearted. With the new world record price of 2.4 million Euro, the Leica 0 series no. 122 is the World’s most expensive camera to date, sold in March 2018. In May 2012 another extremely rare 0 series Leica was sold for 2,160,000 Euro at the 21st Auction in May 2012. For a reference, let’s take the most intriguing time in the upcoming 37th auction, which is the E. Leitz New York Leica Gun Rifle.
The Leica Gun Rifle
The E. Leitz New York Leica Gun Rifle (manufactured in 1938) is up for auction with a starting price of € 100.000. The estimated final price is € 200.000 – 250.000. The Leica Gun Rifle is one of the rarest and most unusual Leica accessories in excellent, original condition. The Lot consists of the special viewfinder engraved with serial number 117 and ‘E.LEITZ INC. NEW-YORK’, a modified PLOOT mirror housing no.2972, modified Leica IIIa no.230908 (1937), Telyt 4.5/20cm no.472827 (focusing scale in feet, with hood and cap), and an extremely rare carrying case RIFUN.
A camera from 1938
The company E. Leitz, Inc. New York launched the Leica Gun Rifle in 1938 using the codeword “Rifle”; it was only produced for one year (1938 to 1939). The “Rifle” was inspired by Commander Attilio Gatti, the well-known wildlife photographer in Africa, and was developed between 1935 and 1937 by E. Leitz, Inc. New York, before being introduced to the public in July 1938. Various authors differ in their estimates about the actual numbers of “Rifles” produced: while P. H. Hasbroeck assumes that only six units were produced, J. L. Lager concludes that a dozen were made overall. There is an estimated 12-14 ‘Rifles’, spread out today over collections worldwide, to be appropriate and realistic.
Final thoughts
The Leica Gun Rifle is indeed an awe-inspiring piece of camera gear. This form factor might be very efficient for wildlife photographers. This is not the sole gun-rifle-style camera rig that was built. There were more rigs like this built years ago, however, we haven’t seen this kind of apparatus for a long time, maybe because of the problematic design of it. Camera accessories companies should consider re-making those types of rigs based on the rifle design, especially for videographers, to allow steady and precise shots.
