All images by Bellamy Hunt, the Japan Camera Hunter. Used with permission.
If anyone in the world runs across rare and unique camera items, it’s Bellamy Hunt. Recently, he shared an image of a rare Leica IIIc Red Curtain Rangefinder with Nazi Navy/Marine markings on it. It’s worth it to note though that none of these cameras came out of Leica’s factory with the engravings. In fact, they were all added later on.
This particular rangefinder has the Nazi symbol with M underneath it–signifying that it was a camera for someone in the Navy. Bellamy tells us that the engraving was most likely done by a jeweler for the owner. But he also thinks that the symbol was added after the specific trend of engraving a Nazi symbol onto the camera was booming–which could potentially make it a fake. In fact, many fake copies came out of Russia.
While this is a real Leica camera, he still believes that the engraving was added after the trend (though still manufactured during war time) because the font isn’t just like the one used on many other cameras out there.
You can check this and other items out that Bellamy has for sale at this specific page.
