A Giant Leica M3 Riesen Model Rangefinder Camera

A Giant Leica M3 Riesen Model Rangefinder Camera

A large wooden dummy model of a 1954 Leica M3 camera, the model with a black painted body, silver painted trim, wooden dials and details, Plexiglas viewers, lens and hand-painted serial numbers and branding. Originally released in 1954, the Leica M3 is to date the most iconic and successful M model made with over 220,000 sold, and in 1959 featured in the Ian Fleming novel Goldfinger, where James Bond used the M3 to capture the card cheating methods of Auric Goldfinger

Early camera retailers would have been familiar with the concept of using dummy camera models in their retail establishments - much as with high-end electronic goods on display in stores today - these display versions would have been made to scale, using actual camera casings but with no internal mechanisms. These dummies would have demonstrated the new designs well to prospective buyers, but as these were expensive items to purchase, the dummies would have meant that retailers would not have had to take their displays down each night for security.

However, the models here are the exception, and made to massive scale to faithfully resemble the actual models but would have been used for trade fairs and exhibitions, or for press and publicity for the release of a new design. Made with an almost obsessional attention to detail, these replica cameras are made in wood with textured Rexine coverings, hand-painted dials, branding, trim and even transparent ‘lenses’, and have all the features of the originals, and in some instances employ actual camera film roll casings and lids, to create the dials and details.

Dimensions: 56 x 33 x 33 cm