Md. auction house to offer pieces of Apple Computer history – Maryland Daily Record
January 6, 2023
Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs stands beneath the company’s trade sign at a trade show in 1976. The sign was later used for year to identify the company’s offices in Cupertino, California. (Submitted photo)
Chesapeake City auction house Alexander Historical Auctions, known internationally for its sale of historical objects, will put two pieces of Apple Computer history up for bid Jan. 27, the first trade sign used at trade shows and at its corporate offices in the startup’s first few years of operation in the mid-1970s and the toolbox used by co-founder Steve Wozniak.
The sign, almost 9 feet long, is made of opaque white plexiglas with applied lettering and the multi-colored “apple” logo. It is encased in its original weathered wood frame. The sign once accompanied company founder Steve Jobs at Apple’s first trade show and then was displayed outside the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters for several years.
Once the company’s success was assured and a new sign was delivered, this first “apple computer inc.” sign was salvaged by an Apple engineer and since 2008 it has been on display at the All About Apple Museum in Savona, Italy.
The dented, soiled blue box used by Wozniak has a single tray within, and the exterior bears years of scratches, dings and grime. A very old yellow Dymo label bearing Wozniak’s name is applied to the top. The same engineer at Apple saw the toolbox lying about at Apple for a long period of time. He asked Wozniak about it and was given the toolbox personally by Apple co-founder, who at the time of the request no longer had any use for it.
Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s and also designed an inexpensive floppy-disk drive controller. This toolbox too was on display with the Apple Computer trade sign and at the Cupertino Historical Society.
The first trade sign used by Apple Computer Inc. in 1976. (Submitted photo)
In 1976, Apple Computer Inc. had revenues of $175,000. Today, Apple’s revenue is estimated to be $375 billion. It has grown to 164,000 employees worldwide.
The items are part of a three-day auction of more than 2,000 lots of historic autographs, documents, and military items, including: D-Day maps and orders to the men who first freed the way for those trapped on Omaha Beach; a bronze statue head of Saddam Hussein, recovered from the pitched battle at Baghdad Airport; a bottle of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild from the French Revolution; Afrika Korps Gen. Erwin Rommel’s shoulder boards; Hitler’s signed warning to his armed forces predicting D-Day; an early self-portrait by John Lennon offering a Nazi salute and much more.
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