Lot 330
Mercury-Redstone 3, 1961, "Randall Made" Knife (2.25") This small, handleless knife is embedded in a clear Lucite cylinder (4x1") with two descriptive plaques. One reads: "1st Knife in Space". The other reads: "CARRIED BY CMDR. SHEPARD MAY 5, 1961 / Randall Made Knives, Orlando, Florida". Randall Made knives are major collector items as we found out in an auction about a year ago. That Randall knife, which was about 4" long and similarly embedded in clear Lucite without any descriptive plaque, realized over $5,000 after spirited bidding. (this knife was also from the Slayton Estate collection).
According to research done with the Randall Knife Company and discussed on www.CollectSpace.com, this lot is actually an "advertising display placed in sporting goods stores around the country" and not flown as the Lucite states. It is known that the Randall Knife Company supplied a handmade knife to each of the Mercury 7 astronauts. Most of these are in space museums around the country today. Based on this information, the piece offered here would appear to have been made to gain publicity for the Company and to publicize its knives, taking advantage of the worldwide attention generated by America's first manned space flight. Given that this has proven to be a promotional piece, one would assume that it is/was fairly common.
In the 30 odd years this writer has been dealing with and/or describing space memorabilia for auction, this is the first time to my knowledge that I have ever handled or seen this item. Other than the piece photographed on CollectSpace (originally sold on Ebay?) and a third that is being offered in a competing auction (talk about a coincidence), these are the only others I know to be publicly recorded. Others undoubtedly exist, but the piece still has to be considered to be extremely rare on today's market. The fact that this piece is also from the personal collection of one of the Mercury 7 astronauts (whose original Mercury knife is in the Astronaut Hall of Fame), ranks this "advertising display" as in a class by itself.
Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500.
Ex. the Donald "Deke" Slayton Estate collection.
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| Realized $2,875 |
