07/01/2009 19:25
Aidas,
In the case of your example, I suspect that it is a transitional camera and that the engraving may not be present because it was possibly being made during the transition in engraving content between the 1936 model which reads "VOOMP" and the 1937 model which reads "GOI VOOMP". This idea fits with the style of the camera which looks to be transitional between 1936 and 1937, for the reasons I have mentioned in an earlier post, as well as the late (1937) characteristics of black-painted top plate but chrome rangefinder housing (although it may be that the different combinations of black and chrome were used in different models ... for example, mine is from 1934 ... N0. 159 ... and has chrome top-plate and rangefinder housing).
Other explanations can be that it was to be given to "offical" use such as military, etc. and so it was not needed to be numbered and identified, or was kept by someone at the factory and so was taken out of the offical production.
Only one other idea, which you may be able to determine by close inspection, is that any engraving on the top was ground or buffed off. I only say this because in your photos it looks like the chrome finish was buffed away from the top area. Usually when this is the case, the edges of the top look rather sharper than other edges. I know that my example and several other VOOMP cameras that I have seen had very light and shallow engraving ... not like the deep engraving on even the earliest FEDs.
It is a beauty!
Regards, Bill
