Presley Auctions to offer European antiques, Apollo 11 flight plans June 9-10

ORANGE, Calif., June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 9-10, Don Presley of Orange, Calif., will auction 1,000+ lots of antiques, fine art and quality collectibles from Beverly Hills and Newport Beach estates. Added highlights include NASA annotated flight plans for Apollo 11 and Soyuz.

The 12 noon (Pacific) start time will be marked by the sounds of a superb 99-inch Tiffany tall-case clock with Walter H. Durfee movement.

"A similar clock with the same type of movement sold in a 2007 auction for $92,500," said Presley. "We've placed a conservative $30,000-$50,000 estimate on the clock in our sale."

Several ornate French clock sets will be auctioned, including a magnificent 19th-century gilt bronze mantel clock with matching candelabra. Additional clock lots include antique Italian and American productions.

The decorative art section continues with a P.E. Fiaschi marble statue of a nude woman, a signed 26-inch bronze nude by Auguste Seysses (1862-1946), Tiffany floor lamps, 19th-century European mirrors and KPM porcelain plaques.

The auction's top painting is a monumental oil-on-canvas portrait of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830-1916) in full military dress. The unique artwork measures 9ft 1in by 5ft 10in (framed).

High-end furniture is led by a 19th-century Guillaume Benneman marble-top ormulu commode and fine 19th-century Italian Renaissance-style giltwood cassone with gilt claw feet and painted panels. A three-piece Aubusson parlor set features carved legs and lions' heads on the arms of the settee and chairs. Asian furniture includes a pair of 67-inch-tall huanghuali bookcases.

A spectacular Knabe & Co. 9ft grand piano with lavish ormolu appointments and lyre-shape foot pedal mount is estimated at $60,000-$75,000; while an extravagantly decorated French billiard table with gilt-bronze ormolu trim could make $20,000-$30,000.

Aerospace memorabilia includes NASA Apollo 11 flight logs and an Apollo/Soyuz test flight log. All belonged to Rockwell (Downey, Calif.) flight engineer Guy Sinclair.

Sinclair and his colleagues monitored NASA's Apollo 11 flight in real time, adding handwritten notes to the logs as the flight progressed. The preliminary Apollo 11 flight plan in binder is dated May 9, 1969. A similarly packaged final flight plan is dated July 1, 1969. The final 1975 Apollo/Soyuz flight plan for the docking of American and Russian modules in space has a detailed timetable for both crews.

Online catalog at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

SOURCE Don Presley Auction