Fascinating Relics From The 20th Century Are Up For Auction

When you consider all the wild and crazy stuff that happened throughout the course of the 20th Century it would be be seemingly impossible to hold an auction celebrating it in all its glory. However, Bonham's set out to do just that with The Story of the 20th Century, a meticulously curated selection of technological and cultural artifacts going under the hammer Wednesday morning. To make spending your gobs of cash a little easier, we rounded up some of the coolest stuff.

Original Apple Office Building Exterior Signs
Estimated winning bid: $10,000-15,000
Measuring roughly four by four and three by three feet respectively, these huge rainbow logos — whose inspiration remains a giant mystery — were mounted to Apple's Cupertino corporate headquarters until 1997, when they shifted to the monochromatic version still in use today.

Signed First Edition Grapes of Wrath
Estimated winning bid: $25,000-35,000
This pristine early copy of Steinbeck's masterpiece from 1939 sports the original beige illustrated cloth dust jacket and an inscription on the title page "For Harold Baily."

Relics of The Kitty Hawk
Estimated winning bid: $7,000-10,000
These little swatches? Just a few pieces of fabric and wood from the glider the Wright Brothers flew at Kill Devil Hills in December 1903, along with the original presentation note from Orville.

Typed and Signed Lettter From Albert Einstein
Estimated winning bid: $12,000-18,000
Composed on letterhead from the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, this signed missive from the frizzy-haired genius is full of gossipy bits about his sex life. Just kidding, it's all about his feelings on quantum mechanics, fundamental physical laws and the future basis of physics.

Piece of the Hindenburg
Estimated winning bid: $10,000-15,000
Collected by a member of the ground crew after the spectacular disaster, which marked the end of hydrogen-fueled airships, this aluminum allow section  — measuring roughly two feet long and a foot tall — is a section of struts from the most infamous zeppelin of all time.

Personal Signed Letter From Theodor Seuss Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss
Estimated winning bid: $2,500-3,500
Containing a message to the beloved author's good friend and fellow artist Phil Dike, the letter — which is composed on amazing Cat In The Hat stationery — is not only signed by Seuss ("Ted"), but features an original pen and ink illustration of a dike tree.

Andy Warhol's In the Bottom of My Garden
Estimated winning bid: $12,000-18,000
This rare copy of Warhol's 1956 picture book contains six hand-colored lithographed prints of his campy and baroque illustrations, full of weirdly erotic cherubic fairies frolicking around.


Joe McGauley is a senior editor at Supercompressor. He's partial to the old Apple logo.