It must be a fake... it has a Zorki 1e body shell, the digits on the speed knob look too modern to me, and you can see on the top plate where the engraving was removed... But it's a nice work at all :-)
For sure it is fake (unless he ordered it after his own death in 1953) and this seller has been know for beautiful fakes for years now.
The large close-up photos of the top-plate, showing no engraving, are very interesting because they illustrate something I have noticed for some time. When the top-plate of a camera has been ground down to take away the original engraving, and even after it has been re-chromed, the edges appear to be very sharp in most cases. The photos of this camera show it well. So this is a good way to tell if a particular top-plate of a camera has been refinished with new engraving, for example, in the case of a fake FED-Zorki or a fake of some other rare camera that requires re-engraving of the top-plate.
Here are the photos to look at and they can easily be compared to an authentic FED or Zorki to see the difference of the edges.
It is definitely a fake! Moscowphoto sells 90% fakes on his eBay-shop! Unfortunately, is it so. I have bought last year FED-Zorki fake on this eBay-shop, It seems to be original, but when I have received it, I have seen that it has been assembled from parts from different FED und Zorki cameras with self engraved top plate. Only the price was real.
a very nice story...
Posted - May 30 2010 : 4:24:03 PM
