RARE 1969 New York Times Apollo 11 Moon Landing FRONT PAGE original flong plate

Description

This year marks the 50
th
anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission
This is an incredibly rare piece. It is a 100% original flong/stereotype used for printing the famous New York Times cover page in July 21, 1969. These were used to create the lead plates that printed the actual newspapers. The actual flong that had hot lead poured over it would have been pretty damaged during the process. Knowing the significance of this cover story, two extras were made at the same time, one for the editor at the time, and one for the head of printing. This one belonged to the printing department employee. I also have the one that belonged to the editor. These were both bought by me, directly from the relatives of these gentlemen after they passed away, in Albany, NY years ago. I hate to let it go, but I am selling this one so someone else (possibly a museum) can enjoy the piece.
I have done extensive research on these contacting everybody from printing museums, to the New York Times. This is a guaranteed to be a 100% authentic piece. I do not know the value, but it is much more impressive in person and would look incredible properly framed. It is very hard to photograph.
I also have the original owner's (NYT employee’s) name/info that I can give to any potential buyers if they want to do any further research.
I believe this was at the tail end of when flongs and stereotyping were used in production printing so this is also a unique piece of rotary press/letterpress printing history.
A few additional details: This particular flong was made by “superflong”. It is a paper mache material, and this piece does have some warping from years of storage (may have been rolled at some point). There are also some stains, as seen in the photos. The piece should easily flatten out for framing/display but I have left it as is since I have owned it.
It has been stored in a museum quality, archival sleeve, which I will include with the sale (see last photo)
Definition: a
flong
is a temporary negative mould made of a forme
of set type, in order to cast a metal stereotype
(or "stereo") which can be used in a rotary press
, or in letterpress
This piece is
sold as is. Please ask any and all questions you have before buying. I can provide more specific photos on request.
This is a chance to own an incredible, museum worthy, piece of American space history.