Original hand-coloured print, with key, showing 'A View of the Balloon of Mr. Sadler's ascending, With him and Captain Paget of the Royal Navy from the Gardens of the Mermaid Tavern at Hackney on Monday Aug 12 1811'.

Originally on a piece of paper roughly 405 x 315 mm, with the dimensions of the print roughly 295 x 250 mm. In poor condition: torn and stained and laid down on a piece of thin card, and with the extremities of the margins chipped. Loss to top-left and bottom-right corners. The loss to the top corner includes a corner of the print (roughly 40 x 20 mm), but this only features the sky. A scarce item, with the caption continuing 'The Balloon ascended at 3 O clock in the afternoon and descended safe near Tilbury Fort in Essex at 20 Minutes past four'. Key to seven features in the illustration, marked from A to G. A charming detailed print, showing the view from beyond the wall of the Tavern, of the balloon ascending, with the two occupants waving flags, while a large crowd look on excitedly from adjoining windows, rooftops, treetops and roadside. The crowd includes gentlemen with telescopes, soldiers, ladies in bonnets, children, cakesellers and men and women in and on coaches. There is much waving of hats, and one cakeseller is so excited that he is spilling the cakes from his tray, the cakes being scooped up by two kneeling urchins, one of them a sweep.