
Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
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Sold for £320 inc. premium
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Head of Sale
Vincenzo Lunardi, termed 'The Daredevil Aeronaut' first demonstrated his hot air balloon in London on 15 September 1784, accompanied by a dog, a cat and a caged pigeon. Setting off from Artillery Ground in Finsbury, the Morning Chronicle reported that 'the general attention of the town and its inhabitants of all ranks, from the Countess to the Cobler's Wife, and from my Lady in St. James' square to my Lord. The little crooked shoe-shiner in an alley in Shoreditch, has been for some days past engrossed by Mr. Lunardi and his Balloon'. Spectators were estimated between 150,000 and 200,000 strong, including the Prince of Wales himself. The nearby pottery at Lambeth joined other tradesmen and artists in creating a memento of the occasion and of the new and exciting 'Balloon-mania', which had gripped the population.