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Apple 1

Price of Apple 1 computer returns to normal level: $122,850

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Apple 1
An original Apple-1 computer, consigned by the original buyer in California, was the top lot in Auction Team Breker’s Science & Technology sale May 20, selling for $122,850 (€110,000). Auction Team Breker image

 

COLOGNE, Germany – An original Apple 1 computer from 1976 sold for $122,850, falling short of its $190,000-$320,000 estimate, at Auction Team Breker’s vintage technology sale May 20.

Consigned by its first and only owner, the historic computer in working condition was accompanied by receipt of purchase, manuals and an archive of correspondence from the fledgling Apple Inc. Over the past few years a succession of record prices suggested a bubble in the market for early Apple equipment. Now, according to auctioneer Uwe Breker, “we are back at normal levels. Five years after the death of  Steve Jobs the hype has settled back.”

Absentee and Interent live bidding was available through LiveAuctioneers.

Another historic first was a rare nickel-plated presentation version of Rasmus Malling-Hansen’s 1867 Writing Ball, the earliest commercial typewriter, which sold for €73,800 $82,000. Not just a masterpiece of ergonomic engineering, the organic spherical form was a design classic in its own right.

 

Apple 1
Rasmus Malling-Hansen’s 1867 Writing Ball sold for €73,800/$82,000. Auction Team Breker image

 

The earliest instrument on offer was a fine gilt-brass equatorial minute sundial by Johann Seltman of Brunwick (Lot 100). In an age before reliable spring-driven clocks, the ingenious device permitted calculation of hour and minutes once the midday line had been established and the latitude set to the geographical position of the user. Generating international as well as national interest, the sundial sold for €35,650/$ 39,600.

 

Apple 1
Equatorial minute sundial by Johann Seltman of Brunwick. Price realized: €35,650/$39,600. Auction Team Breker image

 

Highlights of pre-digital home entertainment included an elegant ‘Orphenion’ disc musical box by Bruno Rückert of Leipzig (Lot 401) for €12,300/$13,700 and a fiendishly complex automatic disc-changing Symphonion at €55,300/$61,400.

 

Apple 1
Symphonion automatic disc-changing music box. Price realized: €55,300/$61,400. Auction Team Breker image

 

Among the cylinder musical boxes, a large orchestral model with ‘bells and whistles’ for the Chinese market, attracted attention at €22.100/$ 24,600, as did a Swiss ‘Station Musical Box’ at €29,500/$32,800. Personal entertainment for the pocket, an exquisite gold and enamel musical snuff box (below) brought €14,750/$16,400.

 

Apple 1
18K gold and enamel musical snuff box. Price realized: €14,750-$16,400. Auction Team Breker image

 

Classic French automata were well represented, with rarities including an early magician clock by Alexandre Nicolas Théroude at €18,400/$20,500, an anthropomorphic ‘Monkey Schoolmaster’ and a ‘Violin Concerto’ from Attracciones Apolo, Barcelona’s oldest amusement park, both at €13,500/$15,000.

 

Apple 1
Magician clock automata by Alexandre Nicolas Théroude. Price realized: €18,400/$20,500. Auction Team Brecker image

 

One of the more unusual entries in the auction was Miguel Indurain’s 1995 Tour de France-winning bicycle, which sped to a new home at almost €5,0005,500.

For details contact Auction Team Breker at 02236/38 43 40, email: Auction@Breker.com.

 

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