Auction of Steve Jobs' Vintage Apple Items and Personal Artefacts Celebrates 50 Years of Innovation

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apple as a cornerstone of technology, a fascinating auction is taking place, showcasing an array of early Apple products alongside Steve Jobs' personal memorabilia.

The event is being managed by RR Auction, a renowned auction house in Boston, which has revealed a collection comprising 191 pieces. This collection includes pioneering Apple computers, foundational documents from the tech giant's formative years, and several items from Jobs' youthful days, such as a selection of bowties and Bob Dylan 8-track tapes. Bidding commenced on a Tuesday.

A centerpiece of the auction is an original document issued by Apple Computer, Inc. on March 16, 1976. This document, authenticated by signatures from Jobs and his pioneering partner Steve Wozniak, is a $500 Wells Fargo Bank cheque issued to Howard Cantin, recognized for crafting the Apple-1 computer's printed circuit board. Interestingly, this cheque was signed 16 days before Apple was officially established, serving as a crucial element in the company's legendary debut.

According to the RR Auction site, this cheque is more than just a financial instrument; it represents the foundational funds that led to the development of Apple's first product, marking the onset of the personal computing era.

The cheque has already achieved a bid of $32,000, a figure it reached within just one day of the auction's start. However, the auctioneers anticipate this will rise to a final closing price exceeding half a million dollars. Meanwhile, the highest initial bid of $55,000 was placed for one of the earliest released Apple-1 computers, which is expected to fetch a similar six-figure amount.

Accompanying these noteworthy artefacts are several of Apple's earliest creations, like the old-school desktop model that laid the groundwork for what would become the Macintosh. Additionally, there's a version of the iPhone that the prodigious teenage hacker Geohot famously modified.

These childhood items of Jobs were entrusted for auction by John Chovanec, Jobs' stepbrother, as confirmed by the organizers. Beyond the bowties and music tapes, this remarkable collection features the wooden desk from the Jobs household, located in Los Altos, California—a location synonymous with the legendary 'Apple garage' where Jobs and Wozniak painstakingly assembled the company’s inaugural computers in 1976.

Other interesting items in the sale include a heat sink and ribbon cable from Jobs’ own Apple-1, a series of car manuals with annotations made by Jobs himself, as well as an endearing note to his father penned on an old Apple business card. Also featured are promotional Apple posters from the dynamic decades of the 70s and 80s.

Interested bidders have until January 29 to place their offers.