i. The “Blue Marble”, the first photograph of the full Earth seen by human eyes, December 7-19, 1972
Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), labelled 'APOLLO VIEW OF THE EARTH' to bottom right of image on recto, with 'This Paper Manufactured By Kodak' watermarks on verso

ii. The “Blue Marble”, the first photograph of the full Earth seen by human eyes, December 7-19, 1972
Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 21.6 x 27.9cm (8¹⁄₂ x 11in), stamped 'UNCLASSIFIED/P 80929 MAR 5-1973' with 'This Paper Manufactured By Kodak' watermarks on verso

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
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Lot Essay

Only this final Apollo mission saw the Earth fully illuminated.

This iconic photograph taken through the 80mm lens from a distance of about 30,000 km was credited to Schmitt who took most of the photographs of the Earth on the way to the Moon but there is a possibility that Ron Evans took it. All Apollo flights were heavily scheduled down to the minute. At the time this photo was taken, none of the astronauts was scheduled to do so. Thus this photograph was taken quickly in a stolen moment.

The photograph was released by NASA on Christmas Eve, four years to the day after the Apollo 8 Earthrise, and the image soon became known as the “Blue Marble,” probably the most widely distributed image in history. Noteworthy NASA photo editors cropped the black sky of space to make the Earth appear bigger than originally captured on film by the astronauts. The popularity of this image saw it reproduced long after the time of the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. The present two photographs bear the longer 'This Paper Manufactured By Kodak', denoting that it was printed post-1972.