Christie’s experts on their favourite objects from Paul Allen’s collection that capture the spirit of exploration

‘As an engineer, astronaut, pilot and one of the first two human beings to set foot on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin has lived an extraordinary life. What is outstanding about this flight suit is that Aldrin used it throughout his career. He first wore it with the Gemini program in the mid-1960s and then all the way through to his post-NASA career when he was Commandant of the United States Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School in the 1970s. And, most saliently, he wore this suit while training for Apollo 11.

‘Not only was this flight suit present at these pivotal events, but it visibly traces Aldrin’s career through its set of patches: mission patches from Gemini 12 and Apollo 11 as well as his colonel rank insignia. It stands out from the majority of commemorative clothing, where one has to already know and then explain the relevant context to appreciate a piece’s significance. With this suit, its importance is sewn right onto its fabric.’

‘This is a pitch book for Jacques Cousteau’s first TV series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. It lays out his vision for the show using photographs of underwater exploration, illustrations and even some episode ideas. Cousteau’s life and work would famously be both parodied and given homage by Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic in 2004.

‘It’s a great behind-the-scenes document and window into his world and process. The show had a long run from the late 1960s through the 1970s. It was narrated by Rod Serling, who had been the host of The Twilight Zone, and his voice leant it this otherworldly feel.

‘Before launching his series, Cousteau had already done so much as a pioneering oceanographer and filmmaker, but this really brought his work to the public. It greatly advanced people’s understanding of marine life — from sharks and whales to what he called “the coral jungle” — and inspired a generation to want to conserve and protect the ocean.’

‘I’ve long been drawn to Enigma machines, which were used by the Germans in the Second World War to develop nearly unbreakable codes. When it comes to the four-rotor machines, they’re very rare. There are only 75 recorded ones left, out of the tens of thousands that once existed.

‘To crack these codes, Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park team had to invent new machines to do the code breaking. One of those machines, Colossus, is considered the first computer. So the Enigma represents a starting point in the history of computing.

‘I also love this as an object. It's in a plain pine box. It's fairly unassuming but very tactile. You open it up, and there's this strange-looking typewriter. You press the keys and see the layers of code on the display screen. Enigmas were built for wartime use, so they’re extremely robust. As a collector, you can interact with this again and again.’

‘This is a crew log book from the Apollo 8 mission that belonged to the famous pilot James Lovell. He was one of the first three human beings to see the earth rise above the moon from space, so to have something he carried with him on that journey is really special. There’s a finite number of things that actually went to the moon, and this was on that first voyage.

‘It has all kinds of great notes throughout, including handwritten observations that show his prowess as a navigator. At the back, there are forms and checklists that have a more personal bent. I love the notes he makes about things like his food. The chicken and gravy on launch day was “salty”, but the shrimp cocktail he ate while circling the moon was “great!”’

‘The tragedy of the Titanic continues to loom large in our culture, over 100 years after the fact, and objects associated with the event continue to interest collectors. This burgee was presented to passenger Molly Brown to commemorate her efforts to get the crew in her lifeboat to go back and look for more survivors, which the sailor captaining the boat ultimately resisted. Brown became known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Although the burgee wasn’t on the Titanic itself, it has this wonderful association with someone who holds an important place within that story.

‘I personally love things that were once purely utilitarian objects but because of their association with a historical event has transformed them into something far more important. Unlike the Burgee, which was produced specifically to commemorate the tragic event, this Titanic luncheon menu had only ephemeral value beyond its immediate utility when it was produced. However, it has now become a touchstone that allows us to connect with that seminal moment. Most people left the ship without much of anything, so these relics are all that survive of the Titanic — at least above water.’

‘This sculpture connects so many of the themes we see throughout Mr. Allen’s collection around art, space and computing. In the Quantum Cloud series, which was inspired by conversations with the quantum physicist Basil Hiley, Antony Gormley investigates the relationship between the human body and space. He conceptualised these sculptures with his body at the centre and then the rest of the sculpture growing around it, introducing light and space and form and energy.

‘Throughout the Gen One sale, there’s this tension between the beginning of things and the end of things, whether it's a suite of early computers or the Einstein letter that led to the development of the atomic bomb. For me, this collection is all about what made Mr. Allen tick, the objects that are most closely aligned to his passions. In a single piece of art, this quantum man encapsulates many of the ideas that he was exploring.’

‘The Austrian artist Frank Paul studied architecture in Vienna before immigrating to the US, where he applied the skills he learned as an architect to illustration. In the 1920s, Paul started working for Hugo Gernsback, who launched the sci-fi pulp genre and published many different magazines, including one called Wonder Stories. Over the next 40 years, Paul became one of the most prolific artists in the science fiction world.

‘This image of a rocket ship was on the cover of the December 1934 issue of Wonder Stories. I love its vibrancy. It’s super eye-catching. He was able to create these otherworldly scenes that captured the audience’s attention. He would play up the colours and the dynamism to make it that much more fantastical and to compete for attention on newsstands. A lot of the conventions in the science fiction illustrative world were established by him, and he’s had a lasting impact within the genre.’

‘For me, this lot is the sort of rarity that encapsulates both the luxury of Renaissance art and a golden age of exploration. In one way, it’s instantly recognisable, but also a little alien to the modern viewer. Essentially, it’s a maritime navigator’s chart, rather than what we think of today as a topographical map. The result is that the coast and its cities are what is important here, rather than the inland details.

‘This particular chart is extremely “luxurious”, with numerous decorative figures, townscapes and compass roses. Jacopo Scotti, enterprising maker of this map, saw the blank inland areas as an opportunity to decorate the chart for a land-based market interested in seeking ornamental status symbols.

‘500 years ago, Portolan charts ago must have been fairly common, because every navigator would have needed one. These would have been undecorated, utilitarian things that wore out with use onboard ships. So the few that survive today are rather exotic artistic marvels.’

‘This suit was made for Ed White during Gemini 4 training, and he also wore it for his official NASA portrait. Made of aluminized nylon, it covered an inner pressure suit and formed the visible outer layer of the total spacesuit. What is particularly great about this cover-layer is that it is from the first generation of spacesuits that were designed to be worn outside of the shuttle. It is this amazing, transitional object from when scientists were in the thick of figuring out micrometeoroid protection, temperature resistance and bulk. White’s name is on the label and the NASA logo patch is on the front. There are very few spacesuits available to own — nearly all others are in the Smithsonian — and the fact that this suit was developed for a pioneer like White makes it all the more remarkable.’

‘The significance and historical uniqueness of this 1976 letter written by Steve Jobs was realized as we were cataloging objects for Gen One. In the letter, Jobs is writing personally to Ed Faber, who was a computer dealer, about his Apple One. It’s signed Steven Jobs at the bottom, and then there’s a note in the upper left hand corner signed Steve. There aren’t many artifacts with Jobs’ signature, let alone two. Other letters, signed business cards, checks and ephemera have become popular collector’s items.

‘The letter encapsulates that era of all hands on deck at Apple. There wasn’t a marketing department, there was Steve Jobs. And you can tell how passionate the early Apple team was about their products. Seeing the initial approach and the marketing materials really excites me. This letter represents an important moment. It set the stage for how this tech giant grew, and it captures that original excitement.’

‘The American painter and designer Chesley Bonestell is an interesting figure because he had both an architectural background and a Hollywood background. He did scene paintings, which made him the ideal artist to depict a different reality. For many of his paintings, Bonestell would build models using measurements from rocket scientists and then light and photograph them and paint from that. His techniques were leagues beyond other mainstream scientific illustrators, and the results have this level of reality that opens up the imagination.

‘Both of these paintings were used in Collier’s “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” series, a group of articles from 1952-1954 that primed the public to support the space race. It’s not often we get a piece of art that really changed people’s minds. These works were instrumental in convincing taxpayers that the space race was something they should get behind.’

‘This lot includes letters from Jane Goodall, Louis Leakey and Dian Fossey as well as photographs, offprints, casts of discoveries and — perhaps most interestingly — an example of chimpanzee tools collected by Goodall. The majority of the letters were sent to Leighton Wilkie, who was funding their work in Africa. The Goodall letters in the series range from 1970 to 1983 and cover quite an arc in her career. They’re written from the Gombe Stream Research Centre and are an incredible boots-on-the-ground account of her work and first-hand observations.

‘There are also detailed letters from Fossey about her research on gorillas and correspondence from Leakey, who was a renowned palaeontologist and archaeologist who mentored Fossey and Goodall from the beginning of their careers. These three made major contributions to our understanding of human evolution and behaviour, and these letters are a personal insight into their discoveries across decades.’

‘This was a really fast computer used by scientific institutions, including NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In the 1960s, the IBM System/360 series, particularly the Model 91, set a new standard for computer architecture, influencing the design of modern computing systems. It’s because of machines like this we can send astronauts to the moon. It was also one of the first beasts to get connected to the ARPANET, the proto-internet. These things are rare – only six of these operator’s maintenance panels are known to exist – and the fact that this one comes to life through the use of emulation makes it really quite special. This particular machine comes from Princeton University, where it supported astrophysics research. More recently, it appeared in the movie Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney.’