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Lot 486

EARLY AVIATION: 18th CENTURY AERONAUTICS SCRAPBOOK.

5 December 2018, 14:00 EST
New York

US$5,000 - US$8,000

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EARLY AVIATION: 18th CENTURY AERONAUTICS SCRAPBOOK.

XVIIIth Century Aeronautics, compiled and edited by William G. Gerhard. 1934.
Folio (355 x 290 mm). 62 pp, title page hand-written in red grease pencil, with paper label typed "Compiled and edited by Wm.G.Gerhard F.R.G.S., 1934" and 5 clipped engravings of hot air balloons, each section headed by a note typed in red and black with the names of inventors, and an explanation of their flying machines. Pages hand-numbered in Roman numerals. Blue-grey cloth, gilt title on top cover. Wear to edges of covers, chipping and browning to page edges, some clippings coming loose.

William G. Gerhard was a noted collector of aviation ephemera, who compiled this album probably as a personal reference of the early pioneers of aviation. The album includes 2 contemporary hand-colored engravingd of Montgolfier balloons, an admission ticket to Jean-Pierre Blanchard's first balloon ascent in 1784, signed "Blanchard," and a contemporary engraving of a proposed assault on England from France in 1804, using ships and balloons.

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