The iconic ‘Lunar Bible’ represents the first Bible, first complete scripture, and indeed the first true book ever carried by Man to landfall on the Moon. A complete Lunar Bible contains all 1245-pages of the King James Bible, and was printed in ‘Microfilm’ format (the only format possible for flight to the lunar surface). One hundred complete copies of the Lunar Bible landed on the Moon during Apollo 14 in the personal ‘PPK’ bag of Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell (after having been previously flown to the Moon aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission). After the mission, a small number were segmented into both 50-page and 2-page sizes by Reverend John M. Stout to maximize the potential number of recipients. The accompanying 50-page copy is one of only 32 examples that were officially flight-certified by both Mitchell and James W. Stout of the Apollo Prayer League during the ‘Lunar Bible Certification Project’ (A.D. 2000 - 2001), and then encapsulated in modern Faberge' Eggs! Un-certified 50-page text-fragments without documentation and crudely-glued to cardboard are now selling in excess of $3,000.00 due to demand, as word of the Lunar Bible now quietly spreads. Likewise, the premium flight-certified Faberge' examples (this copy) have sold at auction in recent years for prices now approaching $10,000.00. Quality images of the Mitchell-Stout flight certification certificate are available for viewing online. This lot is of profound significance to not only the space community as a twice-flown and once-landed lunar artifact, but also to the religious, rare book, and Masonic communities (Edgar Mitchell is a Freemason). Several of the thirty-two copies are already permanently off the market, with an example having been acquired by the State of Georgia for their rare-book holdings, and two more in the personal space collection of Edgar Mitchell and James W. Stout. Another 50-page example is on indefinite-loan to the Atlanta Masonic Library and Museum, and more of these precious-few Faberge copies may become permanently institutionalized and unavailable to collectors in coming years. RRAuction COA.
