A rare Apple Macintosh prototype is returning to auction

The prototype has been nicknamed the Twiggy Macintosh due to the fact that it features the aforesaid 5.25-inch double-sided floppy disk thrust primitively created for the Apple Lisa, which had been codenamed the Twiggy during its development. Those drives were notoriously unreliable, and since the Macintosh didn’t travel with immoderate interior storage, a disk thrust users could trust connected was a captious component.

Apple yet opted to usage a caller 3.5-inch disk thrust plan from Sony, and Steve Jobs reportedly ordered each of the Macintosh Twiggy prototypes to beryllium destroyed — but not each of them were.

This circumstantial Twiggy Macintosh primitively came from the developers of the connection processor MacWrite and was one of 2 prototypes restored to working bid successful 2014. Less than 5 are known to exist, but what makes this prototype particularly collectible is that it features exemplary fig #M0001 connected the underside, making it 1 of the earliest.

This prototype previously sold astatine auction done Bonhams successful 2019 for $150,075, mounting a grounds for Macintosh computers. Bonhams estimates that this clip around, the #M0001 Twiggy Macintosh could merchantability for betwixt $80,000 and $120,000, oregon perchance adjacent more. Earlier this year, Christie’s sold an Apple Lisa 1 for a staggering $882,000.

Other tons disposable done the Bonhams History of Science and Technology auction, which runs from October 13th to the 23rd, see a specimen of archetypal penicillin mold successful a medallion inscribed by Alexander Fleming, and a Blue Box device from 1972, based connected a plan by Steve Wozniak, that could beryllium utilized to hack telephone systems.