Malling Hansen writing
ball, $84,000.
COLOGNE, GERMANY -Strong prices for early technical antiques were
noted at Auction Team Breker's specialty sale on December 1. A
new world record price was set for the first typewriter that was
produced in series - the 1867 Malling Hansen Writing Ball, (Lot
244) which was sold for $84,000.
An 1873 Sholes & Glidden Type Writer (Lot 235), the world's
first successful typewriter, made by E. Remington & Sons,
Ilion, N.Y., sold for another world record price of $33,500.
American's famous Edison Mimeograph Typewriter from 1894 (Lot
243) once again made a new world record at $12,300.
Other rare technical collector's items also followed the upward
trend: A Norwegian De-Luxe-Tele-phone from 1885 (Lot 77) made a
record high $9,832, and an early German Precision Telephone by
Siemens & Halske, circa 1885, (Lot 73) fetched a high $3,850.
A simple version of the German cipher machine of WW II, Enigma,
(Lot 45), made a surprising $20,750.
Sholes & Glidden typwriter, $33,500.
A very early P(ersonal) C(omputer) - the Mark 8 (Lot 37) -
marketed in June 1974, sold for $4,100, and the rare and
extravagant German calculator, Saxonia, with rolltop from 1910
(Lot 30) went for $5,000.
Scientific instrument collectors pushed up the price for the
German Tellurium (Planetarium), Lot 412, to $3,550; a highlight
of the small dental collection was Lot 510, an early Owen chair
by C. Ash, London, from 1880 (Lot 510), sold for $8,200.
A gambling machine, Imo-Horse-Race, (Lot 560) of 1935 made $1,850
and a scarce Lucky Dice from 1928 (Lot 563) went for $3,000.
The section of mechanical music instruments saw the Black Forest
Musical Chair from 1890 (Lot 660) go for $2,650 and the Swiss
musical box by Paillard, from 1883, reach $2,100.
In the toy section, the first tin toy car (Lot 743), the German
fire truck, by Rock & Graner from 1895 sold for $3,300. A
rare delivery motorbike by RSA (Rico), Spain, from 1922 (Lot 752)
made $3,070, and a steam engine No 8 by Marklin, from 1950 (Lot
784), went for $1,480.
Auction Team Breker for the first time combined its traditional
auction with a simultaneous eBay Live Auction. It was so
successful that it will be another ongoing feature of Breker.
