Leski Auctions sells 98% of lots in the sale of the Michael Family Camera Museum, Part 1 on 9 August, 2022 in Melbourne.

By Richard Brewster, on 16-Aug-2022

Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong’s fourth wife Jiang Qing – a keen photographer – might have been tempted to make an ongoing commercial venture of her Chinese-made Red Flag cameras, produced in the 1970s in Shanghai, if she ever thought that one day they would become expensive collectors items.

Of course, these days they are so rare that Leski Auctions director Charles Leski has only seen one – and that sold for a hammer price and high catalogue estimate of $80,000 (Lot 112 ) at his Melbourne-based auction on August 9 of the Michael family’s significant and world’s largest private museum collection of cameras.

As expected, a Chinese-made Red Flag camera, produced in the 1970s in Shanghai achieved the top price in the sale selling at the high estimate of $80,000 at Part 1 of the sale of the world’s largest private museum collection of cameras.

As expected, a Chinese-made Red Flag camera, produced in the 1970s in Shanghai achieved the top price in the sale selling at the high estimate of $80,000 at Part 1 of the sale of the world’s largest private museum collection of cameras.

As it was, only 200 – based on the Leica M4 – were ever produced to apparently hand out as gifts to senior Communist Party members she wanted to impress.

Jiang Qing loved Leica cameras but was reluctant to promote German products so commissioned the Shanghai factory to replicate them.

History does not record how this one found its way out of China and eventually into the Michaels’ collection.

Until recently, when the store was forced to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the family has had more than 100 years involvement in the Melbourne CBD business scene through Michaels Cameras on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Streets.

By the 1970s, the company was taking unusual and interesting cameras as trade-ins for newer and more sophisticated equipment.

This led to the establishment of the museum as a repository of photographic history, until then not adequately preserved in Australia.

The Chinese replica, which was the top selling auction item, was part of a die-hard Leica camera collector who donated his entire collection to Michaels many years ago.

The top 10 returns were all part of this collection, comprising various models of Leica produced at the Leitz factory in Germany.

The second most expensive item of $38,000 was a 1972 Canadian Leica Model KE-7A (Lot 108 ) manufactured for the United States Army.

The camera can withstand temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius and only 505 units were ever produced, with 460 being purchased for army use.

At $22,000, in third place was a 1999 Leica M6 Commemorative “150 Jahre Optik” (Lot 130 ) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Wetzlar Optisches Institut.

And a 1989 Leica M6 Limited Edition (Lot 125 ) commemorating the 150th anniversary of photography and 75th anniversary of Leica was a $12,000 return.

 

Sale Referenced:

About The Author

Richard Brewster has been writing about the antiques and art auction industry for almost 20 years, first in a regular weekly column for Fairfax's The Age newspaper and also in more recent times for his own website Australian Auction Review. With 45 years experience as a journalist and public relations consultant, in 1990 Richard established his own business Brewster & Associates in Melbourne, handling a wide range of clients in the building, financial, antiques and art auction industries.