First transpacific flight collection to make $50,000?

A collection of material relating to the first transpacific flight could make $30,000-50,000 at OAK Auctions.

The Southern Cross, crewed by pilot Charles Kingford Smith and three other intrepid adventurers, flew from California to Australia in 1928.

Transpacific flight OAK
The crew of the Southern Cross were the first to fly across the Pacific

It made just two refuelling stops, in Fiji and Hawaii, over a distance of 7,250 miles between May 31 and June 9 - an extraordinary feat.

This was double the distance of Lindbergh's non-stop transatlantic flight the year before.

All the material belonged to navigator Harry Lyons.

It includes a signed contract stipulating his pay ($1,500) and banning him from speaking to the press.

Other pieces in the October 27-ending auction include photographs of the crew taken after landing in Australia, newspaper clippings and an invitation to a reception at San Francisco's Palace Hotel.

Lewis Carroll's own copy of The Hunting of the Snark (1876) is valued at $10,000-12,000.

It includes a signature in the form of his initials, CLD (Carroll's real name was Charles Lewis Dodgson).

The author's own copy of his masterpiece Alice in Wonderland made $1.5m in a 1998 sale.

The Hunting of the Snark is a hugely influential piece of writing for children and this lot could easily surpass its estimate.

Other highlights include autographs from Albert Einstein, Hector Berlioz and Harry Houdini. You can check out the full selection here.

We've got an excellent memorabilia range of our own for sale.

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