A version of this feature ran in the July issue of BRAIN.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE, United Kingdom (BRAIN) — Cyclist and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once wrote, "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
The bike saddle that once helped Einstein maintain that life balance hasn't moved and remains available for purchase after an auction failed to generate bids during a Dominic Winter Auctioneers events here in May and in October. In the May auction, it was part of the Photographs, Posters & Postcards, Autographs, Documents & Ephemera offering, with a pre-auction estimate of 7,000-10,000 pounds ($9,396-$13,423).
"We would have sold it for 6,000 pounds if there had been any bidding at that level," Chris Albury, senior auctioneer and valuer for Dominic Winter Auctioneers, told BRAIN in early June.
A month later, BRAIN followed with Albury, who said the auction house is still open to "sensible offers" before the saddle is offered in an auction next year.
The brown leather Nelson saddle dates from about 1929 and comes with original paperwork and an order form to the German bike manufacturer Ludwig Nelson Fahrradbau GmbH. The company was active in the 1920s and early 1930s and based in Berlin-Schöneberg and produced bikes, frames, and accessories. The order form was completed in pencil in Einstein's handwriting from his Berlin address on March 26, 1929.
The saddle links two Nobel Prize-winning physicists and close friends. According to family history preserved by descendants of the current owner, Einstein gave a bicycle with the saddle and accompanying paperwork to fellow physicist Max von Laue (1879-1960) during a visit to Einstein's summer home in Caputh, Brandenburg, on Nov. 29, 1932. This was shortly before Einstein fled Nazi persecution and emigrated to the U.S. von Laue was a pioneering German physicist known for discovering the diffraction of X-rays by crystals, a breakthrough laying the foundation for modern crystallography. That earned him the 1914 Nobel Prize in physics.
Violin sells before saddle
Albury said early last year Dominic Winter Auctioneers was approached by the saddle's owner, who had inherited it and a violin owned by Einstein along with other items that had been in the family since 1952. In October, the Einstein items were listed for auction, with the violin selling for just over 1 million pounds, including premium, and a philosophy book used by Einstein sold for 2,700 pounds. The saddle was listed for 20,000-30,000 pounds in that October auction.
"It had been hoped that the violin buyer would want this also and/or that the disappointed violin underbidders would fight for the saddle, but they did not," Albury said. "After the saddle failed to sell last October, the vendor agreed to let us try again this May with a lower estimate. I thought this would be an attractive estimate, but it seems not."
Dominic Winter Auctioneers is an independent auction house serving buyers and sellers globally. It offers market advice for collections and estate clearances, including vintage photography, cameras, posters, medals, coins and banknotes, silver and jewellery, Asian works of art, fossils and taxidermy, sports memorabilia, games and playing cards, and music and film memorabilia.
Sale on the horizon?
Despite not finding a buyer yet, Albury said the saddle has attracted plenty of interest and curiosity.
"Some customers are equally surprised that it did not sell and a few have been tempted to put in an offer, but so far no good offers (5,000 pounds plus) have been received. ... There are still a couple of people thinking about making an offer, and we may yet sell it for 6,000 pounds or so, but it may take another few weeks to conclude a deal. If it still fails to sell, we may try again next year or the owner may decide to keep it as a memento. ... Who knows? One of your readers may turn out to be an Einstein super fan and cyclist!"
