A Lambeth Ballooning plate, circa 1785
27
A Lambeth delftware ballooning plate, circa 1785
Painted in blue with a landscape of houses, trees and a fence, with a hot air balloon in flight picked out in manganese and yellow, within a festooned border and a feathered rim, 22.7cm diam
Sold for £2,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Vincenzo Lunardi, 'The Daredevil Aeronaut' first demonstrated his hydrogen balloon flight in London on 15 September 1784, accompanied by a dog, a cat and a caged pigeon. Then again on June 29th 1785 when the actress Letitia Ann Sage became the first English Woman to fly. On 24 July 1785, Horace Walpole wrote to Horace Mann, 'How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.'

Category: Decorative Arts / British Ceramics

Auction terms and conditions

Contacts

Richard Hird Bonhams
Work
101 New Bond Street
London, W1S 1SR
United Kingdom
Work +44 20 7468 8347
FaxFax: +44 20 7447 7400
Specialist - British Ceramics