Imagine playing a vintage Pac-Man arcade game while wearing Puma’s RS-Computer sneakers and pondering what to order for lunch off a menu from the Titanic. For roughly $40,000, that scenario could be a reality.
The upcoming Christie’s auction of more than 150 assorted items from the Paul G. Allen Collection will feature computing equipment and artifacts, historic letters, artworks, space-related memorabilia and more.
An array of computers once housed at Seattle’s Living Computers Museum + Labs have grabbed much of the pre-sale attention because of Allen’s establishment of the now-closed institution and his history with Microsoft and personal computing.
But away from the mainframes and minicomputers, we scoured the lots from the three separate Christie’s sales looking for items of peculiar interest — and perhaps even affordability. Here are some of our favorites:
Puma RS-Computer Shoe
A 2018 re-release of Puma’s 1986 running shoe with a computer chip built into the heel, these things are like an Apple Watch for your feet. Originally designed for runners to track distance, time and calories, the shoes were updated with new features six years ago, such as USB charging and Bluetooth connectivity to a smartphone. This pair, one of only 86 released, is a size 9. They look like a fine way to show off your geek credentials without wearing Allbirds.
- Estimated auction price: $1,000 to $2,000.
Strati 3D Printed Car
If you’re using your 3D printer to make coasters or Christmas ornaments, time to step it up. Arizona-based Local Motors produced the chassis and body panels for this 2014 car using a large-scale 3D printer. Made of carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic, the car is composed of 49 parts and was printed in about 44 hours.
- Estimated auction price: $5,000 to $8,000.
Pac-Man Arcade Game
It’s fun to picture Paul Allen with his quarters lined up across the screen of this thing, trying to put his “PGA” initials in the high score column yet again. This is the most successful coin-operated game of all time. Many of the machines at Living Computers and now up for auction surely had their signature sounds, but are there any better than Pac-Man’s wakka wakka wakka wakka …?
- Estimated auction price: $2,000 to $3,000.
Microsoft Green-Eyed Mouse
The auction notes say that this item was a “significant advancement in mouse technology” when introduced in the mid-1990s. Maybe you’re a fingers-on-the-trackpad type, but we’re old school enough to still love using a mouse every day. With an optical sensor instead of ball tracking, this technology was said to improve cursor movement on the screen and its ergonomic shape made prolonged use more comfortable. Let’s be real though — those little green eyes are just cool.
- Estimated auction price: $1,000 to $1,500.
Titanic First Class Luncheon Menu
Dated April 14, 1912, this lunch menu was from the same day the doomed British passenger liner struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage to New York City. The menu — featuring a feast of various dishes — reportedly belonged to a first-class passenger named Abraham Lincoln Salomon, who survived the disaster. No word on whether he had grilled mutton chops, corned ox tongue or custard pudding, but hopefully a belly full of Munich lager beer was consumed before the horrible ordeal.
- Estimated auction price: $30,000 to $50,000.
Matchless Canyon Diablo Meteorite
The description for this item reads like the science fiction that captivated Allen. More than 4 billion years old, this iron meteorite — “a natural sculpture from outer space” — was once part of the molten iron core of an asteroid that originated in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. When the asteroid broke apart, “a portion was deflected into an Earth-intersecting orbit” and approximately 49,000 years ago “it crashed into the Arizona desert with the force of more than 100 atomic bombs.” The impact created the famed Meteor Crater near Winslow, Ariz., and this piece would make one hell of a paperweight.
- Estimated auction price: $100,000 to $150,000.
Atari Pong Home Console
Let’s return to a time long before “Grand Theft Auto” got little Jimmy glued to the TV. “Pong” brought video gaming into the home in 1975, with a simple table tennis game that featured rudimentary graphics and an easy learning curve. Along with the classic Atari console, this item even includes a pale yellow Toshiba TV for when your HD is more “hot damn” than “hi-def.”
- Estimated auction price: $3,000 to $5,000.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographs
There are 57 pieces in the “Art of the Future” sale, showcasing Allen’s appreciation for paintings and illustrations that envisioned life in space and more. We like how these two photographs from the 1960s look back to look forward, as famed French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson captured scenes at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., including of the Saturn V rocket used to power crewed flights to the moon.
- Estimated auction price: $4,000 to $6,000.
“Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection” will feature three sales:
- “Firsts: The History of Computing,” online and open for bidding Aug. 23 to Sept. 12.
- “Over the Horizon: Art of the Future,” online and open for bidding Aug. 23 to Sept. 12.
- “Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from the Paul G. Allen Collection,” live in New York Sept. 10.
Post a Comment
0Comments