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Hupfeld Phonoliszt Violina Model A, estimated at €300,000-€500,000 ($325,965-$543,275) at Breker.

Auction Team Breker returns with historic technological marvels March 23

COLOGNE, Germany – It’s the world of scientific history on display Saturday, March 23 at Auction Team Breker. The sale will include 563 lots of vintage science and technology, office antiques, vintage phones, mechanical music machines, and photographic equipment. The catalog is now available for bidding at LiveAuctioneers.

The lot with the highest estimate in the sale, at €300,000-€500,000 ($325,965-$543,275), is the 1910 Hupfeld Phonoliszt Violina Model A. This incredible device plays both a violin and a piano simultaneously, and is described as being in excellent restored and playing condition.

Though it’s unclear which mission it was used on, the sale includes a lunar Hasselblad in black — indicating it was used within the landed lunar module was subsequently taken back to the Apollo command module for return to Earth. Engraved P/N SEB 33100082-201 S/N035 LUNAR SURFACE Hasselblad SUPER WIDE CAMERA 70-mm MAGAZINE, this piece of photographic history is estimated at €12,000-€18,000 ($13,035-$19,555).

Those living in the 19th century could find themselves being entertained by ingenious automata such as Claude the Clown, which was created by Gustave Vichy around 1890. While the music plays, Claude wiggles his nose, darts his eyes left and right, and taps his foot as he plays a miniature concertina. In good working order with minor restoration, the automaton is estimated at €18,000-€25,000 ($19,555-$27,160).

A Leica I (C ) ‘Luxus’ camera dates to 1931 and is serial number 48442. It features faint engraving that reads (? ?) v. Rotter Haage, Rig, possibly connecting the camera to Fritz and Alfred Rotter, Weimar Germany-era theatrical promoters who fled Germany in 1933. It is noteworthy that in the earliest published number lists for the Leica Luxus, only a single camera from 1931 was listed in the 48,000 range: no. 48441 – making this now the second and sequential example. It is estimated at €18,000-€24,000 ($19,555-$26,075).