Item #126928 A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak. Mount Everest.
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak
A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak

A fine collection of approximately 300 signatures of mountaineers, including approximately 95 individuals who have reached the summit of the world's highest peak

The signatures are mounted on 104 card leaves (each 279 × 224 mm), generally with corner mounts, alongside related documents, images, and neat manuscript explanatory text.

A few corner mounts loose; very occasional creases; essentially in fine condition.

The collection is a roll-call of pioneering mountaineers, including the first two men to reach the summit, Edmund Hillary (6 signatures) and Tenzing Norgay (5 signatures). Other record-breakers well represented are Junko Tabei (5 signatures), the first woman to reach the summit; Reinhold Messner (4 signatures) and Peter Habeler (3 signatures), who achieved the first ascent without supplementary oxygen; Nawang Gombu (4 signatures), the first person to summit twice; national firsts including Jon Muir (Australia, 3 signatures), A.S. Cheema (India, 4 signatures), Fabrizio Innamorati (Italy, 6 signatures), Jim Whittaker (USA), Wang Fuzhou (China), and Wanda Rutkiewicz (Poland); two dozen sherpas; and many more.

Among the individuals who did not reach the peak are: John Hunt, Baron Hunt (3 signatures), leader of the historic 1953 expedition that put Tenzing and Hillary on the summit; Eric Shipton, who led the crucial preparatory Everest Reconnaissance in 1951; Norman Dyhrenfurth (7 signatures), leader of the 1963 American expedition; Raymond Lambert (2 signatures), who reached a record altitude with Tenzing in 1952; Charles S. Houston (2 signatures); Captain John Baptist Lucius Noel, who filmed the tragic 1922 and 1924 Mallory expeditions, including the last footage of Mallory and Irvine before their death; and Lieutenant-Colonel Tony Streather (4 signatures), who led the 1976 British Army/Royal Nepalese Army expedition, and was himself the first man to summit Kangchenjunga.

The signatures were collected by a determined autograph hunter (apparently mainly in the 1970s and 1980s). The majority of the signatures are on gilt-edged autograph cards, signed at the collector's request; others are on commemorative first day covers (including several 1978 covers commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the First Ascent). There are approximately 20 signed photographs, and a small number of autograph and typed letters signed.

Perhaps the most noteworthy individual item is the Nepalese Silver jubilee cover made from local paper, flown to the base of Everest; one of only 500 copies, it is signed by both Hillary and Tenzing. It is also signed by Captain S.S. Gill (helicopter pilot), Captain N. Buckley (Patron Australian Air Mail Society), Nelson Eustis (Secretary), Vola Eustis (passenger) and, to the verso, E.W. Roberts (President, Australian Air Mail Society). [A large quantity].

Item #126928

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