MATCHBOX CAMERAS
A metal body Matchbox camera with collapsable sportsfinder, two sliding apertures, helical focusing marked 0.5, 1, 2, 8 and a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar f/2.7 2.5cm. lens no. 873897, baseplate painted to resemble a matchbox.

Details
A metal body Matchbox camera with collapsable sportsfinder, two sliding apertures, helical focusing marked 0.5, 1, 2, 8 and a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar f/2.7 2.5cm. lens no. 873897, baseplate painted to resemble a matchbox.
Literature
White (1990), Subminiature photography, p. 130-131.
Auer & Lothrop (1978), Die Geheimkameras, p. 139.
Auer (1989), 150 Years of cameras, no. 119.

Lot Essay

White calls this German matchbox camera the first important one [and] one of the rarest. He also states that only two or three have ever been located. The cameras was made in Germany c.1938. It was extremely well made. Its underside had a Nazi eagle painted on a blue-grey background to resemble a matchbox.
The camera is one of the rarest of subminiatures with none having been previously sold on the open market.

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