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Auction: 4020 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 40

Mementoes of the Aviation Meeting at Rheims A leather-bound pocket diary, 61/2 in. x 41/4in., the front cover with two windows, the upper one showing a calendar for January 1910, the lower one containing a photograph of Wilbar Wright's aeroplane, the cover inscribed in gold SOUVENIR DE L'AVIATION À REIMS, SEPT 22nd 1909 with Mr CHARLES HEIDSIECK'S compliments, a pocket inside the front cover with calendars for the other months of 1910, and a pad with tear-off pages for each week, each with a footnote about Heidsieck's champagne (the first page torn out), the top remaining page for 3-9 January inscribed with pencilled notes in English, all other pages blank, complete with what appears to be its original pencil; a folding card leaflet advertising la BOUGIE OLÉO and depicting FARMAN EN PLEIN VOL À BÉTHENY 26.8.09; a stamped and franked picture postcard, also showing Henry Farman flying a Voisin aircraft; four unstamped postcards of the event, respectively showing Blériot's monoplane being pushed across a muddy airfield, Lefebre flying the Wright plane, Paulhan's Voisin aircraft and le Comte de Lambert's aeroplane over the airfield (7) Estimate £ 150-200 The Rheims meeting in late August 1909 was the first aviation event to take place in France. It was lavishly sponsored by the city and by many of the leading Champagne houses, notably Charles Heidsieck, and massive prizes were on offer. Thirty eight aeroplanes were entered, of which only twenty three succeeded in getting airborne, thanks largely to the appalling weather which threatened to turn the airfield into a sea of mud, and many aircraft became casualties. In the contests, the most notable events were Henry Farman's new endurance record of over three hours, and the narrow defeat of Blériot by Glenn Curtis, the only American participant, in the Gordon Bennett speed competition. After the Rheims meeting, which was followed a month later by the International Exhibition of Aerial Locomotion in Paris, aviation was deemed to have passed from being dangerous and eccentric to a serious and viable activity.

Sold for
£120