Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Collectibles
“Woz” Signed Apple 1 Appears At German Auction
May 03, 2013There are only some fifty surviving examples of the handmade Apple 1, the first computer sold by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and they’ve been rapidly gaining in value. Last year one sold for $624,000 at Team Breker in Cologne.Later this month the German auction house will offer another, one of only six still in working order. As a bonus, this motherboard sports Wozniak’s signature as “Woz.” It’s expected to sell for $260,000-$400,000.
Read more...Silver Spoons, High Prices
April 25, 2013Many collect flatware, some just spoons. An even smaller subset—numbers unknown– has a passion for vintage silver spoons. For these collectors, Christie’s has fashioned a sale in early June that’s likely to quicken pulses. It’s an auction of some forty 14th and 15th century examples from the Benson collection. Expected to be among the most valuable is a set of six 15th century apostle spoons, estimated at $229,000-$381,000.
Read more...See The Movie, Buy Robinson’s Glove, $1m
April 16, 2013This online auction couldn’t come at a better time for the Robinson family, putting up Jackie’s World Series, game-worn glove just as his biographical movie, “42,” is released. No question the glove was used—hard and long. Steiner Sports Auctions says it was found in an office Robinson once rented. It was authenticated by photo matching. High estimate is $1m.
Read more...Wagner Baseball Card Goes For $2.1m
April 08, 2013A Honus Wagner baseball card netted its seller a half million in five years when it sold for $2.1m at an auction in New Jersey. The same card sold for $1.6m in ’07. Less than 50 were issued by the American Tobacco Company because Wagner deplored children smoking and stopped release of the cards with his picture. On the flip side was an ad for “Sweet Caporal Cigarettes.”
Read more...Beatles Signed Album Goes For A Maniacal $290,000
April 02, 2013Put it down to crazed Beatlemania or shrewd investment, whatever the reason, a Midwesterner bought a signed 1967 album of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for $290,500 at a Heritage auction over the weekend. Prior to that the highest price paid for a different signed Beatles album was $150,000.
Read more...$750,000 Target For Lead Shot That Missed Tsar Nicholas II
March 01, 2013Back in 1905, what was believed to be an assassin’s bullet narrowly missed Tsar Nicholas II outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. That grapeshot ball is tiny, but it set off more than a decade of unrest, culminating in the Russian Revolution in 1917. Privately owned for almost a century, it’s expected to sell for up to $750,000 when it comes up for auction at the London-based Wartski, a dealer in antiques.
Read more...Major French Art Deco Sale At Christie’s
December 03, 2012The late Steven A. Greenberg’s collection of Art Deco furniture and objects of design largely concentrated on the work of just three designers: Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dupas, and Jean Dunand. However narrow its range, however, the more than 200-lot collection, which Christie’s will auction on December 15th in New York, is considered the most important offering of Art Deco designs to come to auction in more than twenty years. A 1932 fan-shaped desk by Ruhlman, adorned with black lacquer and nickel-plated brass is expected to lead the sale, in which it carries an estimate of $2-$3m.
Read more...Tune Into Vintage Radios At Bonhams
November 19, 2012Richard Balsbaugh came by his passion for vintage radios honestly. The founder of Pyramid Communications was a specialist in revitalizing foundering radio stations. Along the way, in the 1980’s, he developed an enthusiasm for the modernist designs and bold colors of antique radios, and soon his collection began to grow. On December 11th in New York Bonhams will offer 133 radios that he acquired over the years, all American designs of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Highlights include six examples of the Art Deco Air King Skyscraper 52 radio designed in 1933. Their pre-sale estimates range from $5,000-$15,000 each.
Read more...“Butchered” Beatles Cover Comes To Auction
November 05, 2012The story makes collectors drool and executives weep. In 1966, the Beatles were bored of their image and insisted on a “Butcher” photo of them in white smocks and animal parts for their next cover. The test response was disastrous. Capitol recalled the “Yesterday and Today” album and pasted over another picture. But next month Julien’s is offering one of the original covers that escaped the pasting.
Read more...Laptop For First Presidential Email To Go For $125,000?
October 30, 2012Fourteen years ago Bill Clinton borrowed a laptop to send the first email from a President. It went to John Glenn who had emailed him while orbiting the earth. The Toshiba used to send the message, with both Glenn’s and Clinton’s messages still on the hard drive, is on eBay starting at $125,000.
Read more...Rare Apple 1 Leads German Sale
October 26, 2012Back in June, an Apple 1, one of only six known working examples of the first effort by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, sold at auction in New York for $374,500. Auction Team Breker, based in Koeln, Germany, has located another, which they will offer at a sale of Technical Antiques & Fine Toys on November 24th. The computer, estimated at $156,000-$260,000, is just one of many remarkable scientific devices at the auction, which also features a number of iconic inventions, including the first patented copying press, the first serially produced adding machine, a 1943 Enigma coding machine, and an 1892 prototype phonograph by Swiss film maker and inventor Casimir Sivan.
Read more...The Biggest Salmon Ever Caught (In Great Britain)
October 24, 2012What, you may wonder, did the biggest salmon ever caught in Great Britain weigh? As it happens, Bonhams has not just the answer, but also a mounted facsimile of the 64-pound specimen. A woman angler named Georgina Ballantine reeled in the behemoth in the 1920’s while fishing in Scottish waters with her father. The carved and painted wooden model of the fish, mounted in an oak frame, is expected to hook some $6400-$9600 at the November 7th auction in Edinburgh.
Read more...Bonhams Herds Carousel Horses To Los Angeles
September 21, 2012When the circus comes to Bonhams in early December, a carousel Hippocamp—part horse, part fish– will be leading the parade. The fanciful figure with a coiling, serpentine posterior, carved and painted by Daniel Carl Muller, rides into the Carousel & Circus Memorabilia auction in Los Angeles with an estimate of $35,000-$45,000.
Read more...Brooke Astor’s Estate Finally Comes To Auction
August 27, 2012For decades, ruling from her 14-room duplex on Park Avenue, New York socialite Brooke Astor set a standard for philanthropy, and civic responsibility. After her death in 2007 at the remarkable age of 105, relatives battled for five years over the revered heiress’ $130m estate, from which her son was convicted of stealing millions. Now, following that scandal, Sotheby’s has announced it will auction the contents of her stylish two homes. Up for grabs at the September 24-25 charity sale are everything from the guest book for her husband Vincent Astor’s yacht (est. $1000-$1500), to her 1959 Bulgari diamond, emerald and gold necklace ($250,000-$350,000).
Read more...Naval Cable Reports End of WW II
August 10, 2012The U.S. army, navy and air force in the Pacific were girding for the bloody invasion of Japan when this cable arrived aboard the U.S. Holland telling “all hands” to stand down. The war was over. The son of the sailor who kept the dispatch puts it up for auction in Millville, Pa., on Aug.15, 67 years to the day it was sent.
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