Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs Signed Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display User’s Guide — “I Love Manufacturing!”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011)
Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display User’s Guide
Circa mid-1990s
Signed and inscribed in black felt-tip:
“Steve Jobs, I love manufacturing!”
An extraordinary piece of Apple history: an original Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display User’s Guide, boldly signed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and bearing one of the most fascinating inscriptions associated with the legendary technology entrepreneur:
“I love manufacturing!”
The inscription is especially significant because Jobs is documented using virtually the same phrase on another important signed artifact. In 1988, while introducing the NeXT computer, Jobs signed a copy of Newsweek with “I love manufacturing.” That example, accompanied by authentication from PSA/DNA, Beckett and JSA, sold through RR Auction for $50,794.
The sentiment encapsulates an often overlooked aspect of Jobs’s career. Although remembered primarily as a visionary of personal computing, industrial design and consumer technology, Jobs maintained an intense interest in how products were actually manufactured. His obsession with materials, tooling, production processes and manufacturing tolerances became integral to the product philosophy of the companies he led.
An Artifact From Apple’s Transitional Years
The Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display belonged to Apple’s CRT display family of the mid-1990s, an era immediately preceding one of the most consequential corporate turnarounds in American business history.
Jobs had left Apple in 1985 following a power struggle within the company he had co-founded with Steve Wozniak in 1976. He subsequently founded NeXT Computer and acquired the computer graphics operation that eventually became Pixar.
Apple acquired NeXT in 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company. By 1997 he had assumed operational control, beginning the extraordinary transformation that ultimately produced the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.
The present Apple manual therefore represents the company’s pre-iMac CRT era, making the Jobs inscription particularly evocative.
“I Love Manufacturing!”
The inscription elevates this well beyond an ordinary Steve Jobs autograph.
Jobs was famously reluctant to sign memorabilia, a fact that has made authentic examples of his autograph exceptionally desirable. RR Auction describes Jobs signatures as scarce and has recorded substantial prices for signed Apple material. A signed Mac OS X technical manual brought $41,977, while the celebrated Apple II manual personally inscribed by Jobs in 1980 realized an extraordinary $787,484.
More importantly, the phrase on the present piece has a remarkable authenticated counterpart.
The 1988 Newsweek example was signed:
“Steven Jobs, I love manufacturing.”
The present Apple manual carries:
“Steve Jobs, I love manufacturing!”
The repetition of such an unusual and distinctly Jobsian sentiment gives this artifact considerably greater historical personality than a simple autograph.
About Steve Jobs
Born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly after birth, Steve Jobs became one of the defining entrepreneurs of the computer age.
Together with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, Jobs founded Apple Computer in 1976. The Apple II helped transform personal computers from hobbyist machines into consumer products, while the Macintosh introduced millions of users to the graphical user interface.
After leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT and became instrumental in the development of Pixar, which revolutionized computer animation with Toy Story.
His return to Apple ultimately produced one of the greatest corporate revivals in history. Under Jobs’s leadership, Apple introduced a succession of products that reshaped entire industries.
Jobs died in 2011 at age fifty-six.
His autograph has since become one of the most valuable signatures of any modern business or technology figure.
Condition
Original Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display User’s Guide with expected minor handling and storage wear. The bold black inscription occupies a prominent portion of the front cover and presents exceptionally well against Apple’s understated cover design.
Item: Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display User’s Guide
Period: Mid-1990s
Signed: Steve Jobs
Inscription: “I love manufacturing!”
Medium: Black felt-tip marker
Condition: Very good overall
Authentication: [Insert your COA/authentication information here]
An exceptional convergence of Steve Jobs, Apple history and Jobs’s celebrated fascination with manufacturing and product creation, distinguished by a rare handwritten inscription with a documented authenticated parallel.