Agostinho Freitas , Jun 09, 2007; 07:57 a.m.
Roland Schmid 
, Jun 09, 2007; 08:25 a.m.
That is not a binocular, that is a ugly monocular and looks like a fake.
Alex Lofquist , Jun 09, 2007; 01:04 p.m.
It is a Galilean type telescope of relatively low power. I would donate it to a museum and use it for a tax write-off.
Christopher Handisides , Jun 09, 2007; 02:12 p.m.
One really big tip off here is the Luftwaffe (air force) eagle shouldn't be on a swastika with a wreath around it. The army and the SS had different eagles on wreathed swastikas, but they're quite different than the "flying" Luftwaffe eagle. They're the ones posed like cormorants sunning themselves.
I can't really figure out the random American B-17 either...
Dan Flanders , Jun 09, 2007; 03:13 p.m.
The 'Leica' trade mark was an acronym of LEitz and CAmera, and to the best of my knowledge was used ONLY on the cameras. They did not use the 'Leica' name on binoculars or any other optical products until the corporate name change well after WW2. Even the lenses for the cameras were marked 'E. Leitz, Wetzlar' and not 'Leica'. Any military products of Leitz were not so engraved by the factory but after delivery to and by the using military arm.
Dan Flanders , Jun 09, 2007; 03:37 p.m.
I should know what a B17 looks like from the top and that is pretty close, but why on a German telescope? Someone went to a hell of a lot of trouble to do all the engraving and embossing, and they definitely over played their hand, but it is beyond imagination what any twentieth century military arm would be doing with a seventeenth century optic!
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L. David Tomei , Jun 09, 2007; 05:38 p.m.
It's fake. That's a bad drawing of a JU-90. The rest is all wrong. Chalk it up to experience and lose it (IMHO).
Tito Carlos Maria Sobrinho , Jun 10, 2007; 09:29 a.m.
That's a monocular telescope used by Blackbeard, Cpt. Morgan, Cpt. Kidd, C.Columbus, Cpt. Cook, Alvares Cabral, Fernão de Magalhães so on and so forth.
As Dan mentioned...a monocular telescope to be used by the Luftwaffe? Pathetic!
I hope, you din't pay more than $5 for it.
L. David Tomei , Jun 10, 2007; 02:04 p.m.
Agostinho,
I hope you aren't "thin-skinned". Maybe some of us should post our quiet errors done before we may have become "experts"... or maybe not.
Ciao from Roma (and really, fake Nazi stuff has no historical value and ruins whatever modest value there may be in optics and cameras)
