Very rare commemorative Leitz binoculars BINOLIT 6X24, engraved ‘100 Jahre Leitz Werke, 1849-1949’. This is the first time a piece with the 1949 anniversary crest engraving is offered at auction.

LITERATURE Lars Netopil (ed.), 100 Jahre Leitz Werke, in: VIDOM, no. 94 (Leica Historica e.V., 2007), p. 42ff.

The Company Ernst Leitz Wetzlar celebrated its 100th anniversary on August 6, 1949. Various publications commemorated this event, which are widely known. Of particular interest, however, are the few Leitz products especially engraved for this event. There was no collectors’ market at all at the time, so the reason for those special engravings was a raffle for the Leitz employees. As first prizes, there were three Leica cameras (Leica Standard model E, IIc and IIIc) plus six binoculars (two each of the 6X24, 6X30 and 8X30 models), as well as a very small number of Leitz Prado-150 slide projectors.

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