This Sunday, personal collections from the estate of former record industry executive Herb Belkin will go up for auction in Thomaston.
Belkin, who lived in Camden when he died in 2001, is remembered for his influential work at Capitol, Atlantic and ABC Records in the 1970s. He's also considered a pioneer in the remastering of vinyl records by Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd and The Beatles that appeal to audiophiles. His own personal copies of these records are included in the objects that are up for bid this weekend at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries.
In addition to his personal collection of art, which includes pieces by Frank Stella, David Hockney and Alexander Calder, there's his trove of gold and platinum record wall plaques for his work with acts such as Grand Funk Railroad, Jimmy Buffet and Steely Dan.
Then there's Belkin's 1980's reproduction of a Rock-Ola Jukebox.
"This version is fitted with a CD changer rather than a record changer and all I do is punch in a four digit number and..." says Liz McLeod of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries as Beatles comes on.
McLeod says one of the stars of the show is a factory-sealed box set of the Beatles' collection, remastered by Belkin's Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in the early 1980s.
What adds to the provenance of these records, she says, is the fact that Belkin managed to convince Apple Records to release the studio masters and fly them across the Atlantic.
"Those tapes were shipped to the United States from London in special lead-lined cases in their own seats on an airplane. They had to be hand-carried and hand-delivered. You don't just ship the Beatles master tapes FedEx," she says. "You had to be a powerful, larger-than-life personality to be able to enter into those negotiations and get Paul McCartney to take your calls."
The same groundbreaking, half-speed remastering process had been used earlier in 1979 to recreate Pink Floyd's iconic "Dark Side of the Moon." That project, McLeod says, put Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs on the audiophile map.
"With an even better grade of vinyl, a heavy, thick, substantial pressing that would not resonate the way that a thin pressing would. It was issued in a special, very high-quality container," she says. "It had extensive liner notes and information which you cannot see in the copy we have because this is a sealed original."
Asked whether collectors might unseal the records to play them, McLeod says, "Well you'd be surprised, some people might. A lot of audiophiles believe that the purpose of a record is to play it, not put it on a shelf, and it's certainly the prerogative of the winning bidder to do as they please with it. If they'd like to put it in a safety deposit box and let it appreciate that certainly an option. But I think if they did open it up and put the record on their turntable, I think they would be overwhelmed by the quality of the reproduction."
Auctioneers at Thomaston Place Galleries say they have also discovered in Belkin's collection an added bonus that might just be the most important piece in the lot.
A rare vinyl remastering of Journey's 1981 album "Escape," which was pulled after just one day due to copyright issues with the record company, is expected to fetch as much as $6,000.
Belkin's personal collection will go up for auction at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 29. All of the items are available to preview online or at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries.
