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It's the chair, Jim, and just as we knew it

"This is without question the most important piece of Star Trek history ever to come up at auction," read the catalog description of the June 27 sale conducted in Los Angeles by Profiles in History, a Beverly Hills, Calif., auction company that specializes in the sale of entertainment memorabilia. Lot 175 of the company's second Star Trek themed sale was the original captain's chair from the bridge of the USS Enterprise, constructed at the Desilu Culver Studios in November 1964 and first used by actor Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike in the shows first pilot episode, The Cage. It remained a focal point throughout the entire series when occupied by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk.

According to the auction catalog, the late owner picked up the chair (and accompanying set pieces in the sale) in 1969 after he received a call from a friend at Paramount Pictures, who informed him that the entire Star Trek set was being scrapped and that, if he was interested, he was welcome to take whatever he wanted before they were thrown away. That same day, with the help of a few friends, he picked up the chair and (with the exception of a minor alteration he made to the right arm panel) preserved it in original condition.

The chair had been scrutinized and authenticated before the sale by all three surviving Star Trek authorities: Bob Justman, the assistant director and associate producer of both the original series and The Next Generation who consigned many items for this sale; art director on the show Walter "Matt" Jeffries who examined its construction and components; and production executive Herb Solow who also gave it the thumbs up. "My skepticism vanished when I saw and examined the chair," said Solow. "It is the real thing, a combination of 1960s wood, metal, wires, bulbs, plastic, paint and Naugahyde that sat in its special place and was a major part of the production of our groundbreaking series."

Perhaps it was not, as the cataloger suggested, "the most recognizable chair in the world," but it is the most expensive item ever sold from the television age, knocked down at twice its top estimate for $304,750 (including 15 percent buyer's premium).