|
Space Exploration: Our Third Amazing Auction is
Now Open for Bidding
by Michael Riley
 It's
been just less than a year since Heritage's first auction in this
fascinating category. That very successful event featured items
directly from the collection of Dr. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to
walk on the moon, as well as material from two NASA employees who
were closely connected with the health and physical training of the
early astronaut corps, Dr. D. Owen Coons and Joe Garino. In our
second auction, this past March, we featured lots from the
collections of some of America's best-known and well-loved
astronauts including Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Walt Cunningham,
Charlie Duke, Dick Gordon, Joe Kerwin, Jack Lousma, Ed Mitchell,
and Paul Weitz; Heritage welcomed several of them to a reception
and the live auction at the Frontiers of Flight Museum just a few
miles from our International Headquarters.
The time has quickly rolled around for another fabulous offering
of the finest in space memorabilia. Auction
#6007 will be held at our Dallas headquarters in two live
afternoon sessions on October 7, 2008. That is a special week in
space history. It was forty years ago, on October 11, 1968, that
Apollo 7 launched from Cape Canaveral, signaling the beginning of
the manned Apollo missions and the race to the moon. Those stirring
Apollo missions as well as the preceding Mercury and Gemini flights
will be well represented by the exciting lots in this auction.
Once again, we have welcomed quality historical items from the
personal collections of the astronauts themselves including
Bean,
Cernan,
Duke,
Mitchell, and
Weitz. We are particularly thrilled to add
James Lovell to that list of esteemed consignors. This is the
first time that he is offering relics from his own space collection
to the general public. A veteran of four major space missions
(Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13), Lovell flew twice
to the moon; his book, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo
13, was the basis for the popular film Apollo 13. This
auction also includes some fabulous material from several fine
personal space collections, some of which have been off the market
for decades.
Below is a list of just some of the featured lots from this
important auction. Please visit our online
catalog to place your bids now or use our popular MyTrackedLots
feature to keep track of the lots that most interest you. If you
can't make it to Dallas for the auction, you'll still be able to
bid via our Heritage
Live venue with live streaming audio and video.
Back to Top
Astronauts' "Out of this World" Experiences in
Fundraising Auction
 Bidders
will have a chance to dine, snorkel and even fly with a veteran
astronaut as part of a fundraising auction
conducted by Heritage Auction Galleries for the Astronaut
Scholarship Foundation. Founded by members of the original "Mercury
7" astronauts, the Foundation has provided nearly $2.5 million in
college scholarships to engineering and science students since
1984.
The "Astronaut Experiences" will be offered as part of the Space
Exploration auction by Heritage in Dallas, Texas and online
(www.HA.com) on October 7,
2008.
 "Winning
bidders will be able to have
dinner with pioneering Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter, the
second American to orbit the Earth;
SCUBA dive or snorkel in Cabo San Lucas with Apollo 16
moonwalker Charlie Duke; or
fly in a 1942 Bi-Plane with astronaut Sam Gemar," said John
Hickey, Heritage's Space Exploration Consignment Director.
 "The
auction will also offer historic space artifacts including a
wristwatch worn in space for nearly four months by astronaut
William R. Pogue onboard the Skylab space station and a
Portable Utility Light used by Alan Shepard on the moon during
the 1971 Apollo 14 lunar mission."
 Other
items in the fundraising auction include attending one of the last
scheduled, ground-shaking space shuttle launches with Robert
Crippen, commander of the first shuttle launch in 1981; a
handwritten letter by Mercury 7 astronaut Walter M. Schirra
describing his "most impressive experience as an astronaut;" and a
canvas printed with photos taken in space of the Earth and moon
which is signed by 27 astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo,
Skylab and Space Shuttle missions.
"Proceeds from the auction will provide scholarships for college
students who exhibit motivation, imagination and exceptional
performance in the science or engineering field of their major
through the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's program," said Linn
LeBlanc, Executive Director of the nonprofit foundation based at
the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. "There are more than 80
astronauts who assist the foundation in helping the United States
retain its world leadership in science and technology, and this
auction is just one of the ways we raise funds to support this
mission."
The 2008
October Signature Space Exploration Auction is open for bidding
now at HA.com.
For additional information about the Foundation, contact the
Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, Phone: (321) 455-7014. Online:
www.AstronautScholarship.org
Back to Top
The Daniel Trinchillo Sr. Collection
 Daniel
Trinchillo Sr. has been an avid collector of fine mineral specimens
since his first magical encounter with minerals some 25 years ago.
This passion for collecting came as a surprise to him, as well as
everyone else, as no one in his family had ever exhibited any
inclination to collect anything. He is the 2nd youngest
of 7 brothers of an immigrant Italian family. Raised in Brooklyn,
New York, he simultaneously trained as a watch repairman and as a
butcher. He worked as a butcher in the meat packing industry and
rose to the position of foreman at Edmund Mayor Meats. With
entrepreneurial zeal, he purchased a small trucking company in 1973
and began working for himself. He reinvigorated the company,
growing it from 1 to over 20 accounts. He still runs it today.
His success allowed him to invest in his newfound love of
minerals. It all started when his wife and young son; Daniel Jr.,
announced that they wanted to visit a mineral store in Wayne, New
Jersey, to see if there was anything of interest. Did he want to
come along too? Upon entering the store, he was instantly hooked:
the sheer beauty of these natural art-works cast a spell on him
that has yet to fade. On that fateful day, he bought two drawers
full of minerals - at least 50 to 80 specimens altogether, maybe
more. And that was just the first day of his collecting career.
 For him,
the chase was everything - finding the best specimens and, if you
were lucky, being able to buy them. Once he traced a rumored
specimen for three years trying to track it down. When he finally
managed to find it - the owner didn't want to sell. So he had to
wait even longer before finally persuading the owner to part with
it. That situation was repeated many times in the course of his
collecting career as he targeted individual specimens for
acquisition. Occasionally, he would buy entire collections just to
acquire a single, unique piece for his collection. For 25 years he
pursued this course: Continually buying and selling specimens as
well as collections, but always with the strategic goal of building
the collection.
When he was presented with the opportunity to develop a business
in Russia, he leapt at the chance. He sent his son Daniel Jr. there
to oversee the operations, thereby helping to launch his career.
Daniel Trinchillo Jr. is now a prominent mineral dealer in his own
right and his father is very proud of giving him his introduction
into the industry. Many of 'Senior's' mineral specimens were
"cherry picked" from material acquired by 'Junior,' before they
could be seen by the market.
 Given
the quantities of some mineral specimens from a given location in
Daniel Sr.'s collection, one might get the feeling that they are
fairly common. There is nothing further from the truth - there are
duplicates because he liked them and sought them out. In some cases
he would purchase entire pockets just so he could keep the best
specimens. In other cases, he would just make a point of collecting
specimens from a specific locality just because they were difficult
to obtain.
One of his favorite minerals is Quartz, as can be seen by the
wide variety of types and localities represented in the collection.
Because one theme in his collection is "V" or "rabbit specimens",
he particularly favored the rare
"Japan-Law" Quartz twins and has many unusual ones in his
collection. He set about to collect as many Japan-Law twins as he
could, from as many locations as possible. He also loved Quartz
because he self-collected "Herkimer
Diamonds" in upstate New York. He would pack up the family for
these field collecting adventures - they would spend hours bashing
rocks and looking for elusive specimens. His fascination with
Quartz of all types spans the globe.
 Daniel
Trinchillo Sr. also loved the variety of mineral colors and crystal
forms, particularly of
Fluorite,
Tourmaline and
Calcite. His fascination with Fluorite was enhanced by the fact
that Daniel Jr. was able to come back from his travels with
unparalleled Fluorite specimens from China. 'Senior' truly loves
fine, large, colorful Tourmaline specimens. He coveted the
"Sharon Stone" Tourmaline group for years - ever since the
first time he heard about this unprecedented piece. He waited
patiently until it finally could be freed up to add to his
collection. He purchased entire pockets of unusual Tourmalines just
because each one was individual and different.
 So these
are some of the various threads that form the complex pattern
evident throughout his collection: rarity, form, color,
composition, unusual crystal habits, and sheer natural aesthetics.
Size was never a consideration - he loves all of the minerals: from
small thumbnails to large cabinet specimens.
The collection reflects his passion for aesthetics over
anything else. It contains more than 400 fine specimens: old
classics, new 'destined-to-be-classics', unusual forms, and
sometimes just exquisite examples of minerals that caught his eye.
His collecting philosophy was and is; "if you like the mineral, you
need to go for it, because you'll never get another one like it."
He always felt that "It's not the price; it's the fact that each
specimen is one-of-a-kind."
Time plays the tune and we are but dancers: Daniel Senior as
well as the rest of us. It is time for others to marvel at the pure
crystalline beauty of these wonders fashioned long before our short
time of glory and possession; Time for others to be granted
temporary stewardship of these timeless works of art.
Back to Top
Natural History Painting in Illustration Art
Auction
 Natural History
collectors will want to take note of a beautiful artwork coming up
in our October 15 Illustration
Art Auction. We are thrilled to be offering an original
oil painting of a prehistoric ichthyornis by famed prehistoric
landscape and dinosaur artist Rudolph F. Zallinger (1919-1995),
creator of the renowned mural "The Age of Reptiles" (1943-47) at
the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, for which
he received a Pulitzer Award for Painting in 1949. Zallinger went
on to paint "The Age of Mammals" mural for the Peabody in the
1960s, further cementing his reputation as America's preeminent
natural history artist. Zallinger's paintings are quite scarce in
the marketplace, so this is a special opportunity!
Back to Top
|
