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Autograph hounds will be on the scent for this piece of Cold War history: real pawprints of two famous Russian space dogs who orbited the earth in March 1960, before any human.
Retired Brooklyn teacher Herman Darvick, 66, is auctioning off two rare envelopes marked on the front with the pawprints of pioneer Soviet “muttniks” Chernoushka (Blackie) and Zvezdochka (Little Star).
They were the last of the nine “guinea pigs” to rocket into outer space along with a human mannequin in their Sputnik capsules.
When they returned to earth unharmed, scientists were finally assured that space flight would be safe enough for humans.
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history as the first man to lift off into outer space aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.
It was a crushing blow for the United States, the rival that relied on fruit flies and chimps for their space-survival experiments.
The Soviets, on the other hand, had decided on dogs, specifically female strays they picked off Moscow streets.
“They’re one of a kind and the strangest autographs in my collection,” said Darvick, a renowned autograph collector and authenticator who boasts signatures from every actor in the “Twilight Zone” TV series and players of the 1986 World Championship New York Mets.
It was Darvick who had come up with the idea of a “paw-tograph.”
“I knew someone had asked for Yuri Gagarin’s handprint and he turned them down, so I thought this was the next best thing,” Darvick said.
In 1966, Darvick, then 20, had read about a new Soviet-issued stamp commemorating the fifth anniversary of Chernoushka’s and Zvezdochka’s heroic space travel. It was also the centennial of the ASPCA here and it was marked by printing an anniversary design on envelopes purchased at the main Post Office.
Darvick thought that by combining the two anniversaries he would make an invaluable collectable. So he sent the two stamped envelopes with a letter to Russian officials asking if Chernoushka and Zvezdochka would ink their pawprints on the front of the ASPCA envelopes.
Several months later, he was shocked to receive a friendly response from Vasily Parin, founder and first secretary general of the USSR Academy of Medicine, along with a letter certifying the pawprints of the pooches.
Darvick said he’ll keep the paw-signed letter, but he’s hoping to get at least $400 to $500 apiece for the pawprinted envelopes at the New Hampshire-based RR Auction house when bidding ends Thursday.