BALLOONING

[Ballooning and Victorian Music Hall.] Anonymous Manuscript of the lyrics of two comic songs: 'Balooning [sic]' (inspired by a piece in Charles Dickens's 'Household Words') and Harry Sydney's 'It's just as well to take it in a quiet sort of way'.

Author: 
[Ballooning and Victorian Music Hall; Harry Sydney, music hall artiste and songwriter; Charles Dickens and 'Household Words']
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [London? Circa 1865.]
£400.00

3pp., foolscap 8vo. On a bifolium of laid paper. In fair condition, aged and worn. The first poem, 'Balooning [sic]', covers both sides of the first leaf. No evidence has been discovered that this poem was ever published, but it is inspired by the exploits of 'Mr. Green' in a humorous essay titled 'Ballooning', which appeared in Charles Dickens's 'Household Words' on 25 October 1851. The choice of two phrases ('pipes & backy' and 'Mounted Meershaums') is given in the present manuscript, these variants perhaps suggesting that this item is authorial rather than a transcription.

[ 'The Dirigible Balloon' game. ] Printed instructions, in French, for 'un nouveau jeu instructif' titled 'Le Ballon Dirigeable', with reference to 'le comte Zeppelin', 'Santos Dumont', the 'Freres Wright' and the 'major de Parseval'.

Author: 
'Le Ballon Dirigeable', French game [ Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin; Alberto Santos-Dumont; Wright brothers; August von Parseval]
Publication details: 
French. Unattributed and undated (pre-First World War?).
£50.00

1p., 8vo. On cheap paper stock. Aged, and with chipping and closed tears to extremities. Stamped on the reverse by the Paris bookseller C. F. Labarre (fl. 1970). Printed in the bottom left-hand corner: 'No. 6012.' 37 lines of text.

[BBC TV International Balloon Race, May 1965.] BBC Press Service press pack with two maps (one of the 'Revised Route'), plan with text of 'The Free Balloon', biography of producer Brian Branston, 'Who's Who', 'Topographical Background' and 'History'.

Author: 
BBC TV International Balloon Race, May 1965 [Brian Branston (1914-1993); Jacques Demenint; Charles Dollfus; ballooning]
Publication details: 
One item on BBC Press Service (London) letterhead, dated 'May 1965 | CMG'
£150.00

Eight items, in good condition on aged paper, with the three photographic illustrations darkened. In blue card folder. ONE: Mimeographed typed biography of 'Ronald Victor Brian Branston'. On BBC Press Service letterhead; May 1965. 1p., 4to. TWO: Mimeographed typed 'Who's Who'. 2pp., foolscap 8vo. With entries on nine balloonists (from Albert van den Bemden to Anthony Smith, and including Charles Dollfus, 'curator of France's air museum') and two passengers. THREE: Mimeographed typed 'Topographical Background'. 2pp., foolscap 8vo.

Printed Victorian handbill poem in Yorkshire dialect, titled 'On the Wing. By John Lawton.', speculating in a humorous style on the effects of successful transport by air.

Author: 
John Lawton, Victorian Yorkshire dialect poet [aircraft; air transport; aeroplanes; fixed-wing flying; manned flight; ballooning]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Yorkshire, 1850s?]
£160.00

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper, with slight wear and loss at head. The leaf has been trimmed down to 21 x 16 cm., with rounded corners, around the poem's decorative border. The poem consists of 96 lines, in twelve eight-line stanzas; it is arranged in two columns beneath the title: 'ON THE WING. | BY JOHN LAWTON.' First stanza reads: 'I wor thinkin one neet wol sit i mi cheer, | Wot thowts enter sum people's pates; | Wot useful invenshuns they'n plan'd everywheer | To benefit people un states.

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'.

Author: 
[James Sadler (1753-1828), balloonist; the Mermaid Tavern, Hackney; balloons; ballooning]
Publication details: 
[Circa 1811.]
£500.00

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'.

Stead's Wonders of Science Series. The Story of Flying Machines. The Conquest of the Air. With eleven specially selected illustrations.

Author: 
T. W. Scott [William Thomas Stead's Publishing House; Wonders of Science Series; aircraft; aeroplanes; aeronautics; ballooning]
Publication details: 
London: Stead's Publishing House, Bank Buildings, Kingsway, W.C.2. Printed by W. & J. Mackay & Co., Ltd., Chatham.
£76.00

Octavo, 48 pages. Stapled. In faded original orange printed wraps. Nine pages of illustrations, including three on wraps. Good, on aged high-acidity paper. Wraps a little stained. Unobtrusive ownership inscription at head of front wrap. Illustrations include two full-page balloons and 'A modern sea-plane: the Burgess-Dunne type'. Twelfth illustration (diving English biplane) on front wrap. Scarce: no copy on Copac.

Projet d'application de la lumiere electriqu[e] a l'eclairage des villes

Author: 
[ELECTRICAL ILLUMINATION VIA BALLOONS] Charles Dubos, French inventor or scientist
Publication details: 
No date (mid-to late Nineteenth-Century).
£350.00

Four pages, folio, chipped with small loss of text. IN FRENCH. He begins: "Les nombreuses experiences que j'ai fait sur la lumiere electriquee l'appareil que j'ai confectionne me mettant en meme de pouvoir l'appliquer a l'eclairage des villes avec avantage et economie sur tout autre systeme". He discusses the expense of gas and gives a precis of his plan ("L'agende"), giving letters which correspond to a "dessin" which is not present, and listing his points with a little detail: un ballon de gaz; filet ensoie; cordes en soie; Lampe electrique . .

Three Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to Kenneth Luckhurst, Secretary, and G. P. Griggs, Assistant Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, together with four unsigned carbons of Typed Letters from them to him.

Author: 
Sir Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith [AVIATION]
Publication details: 
1949-51; three on letterheads of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
£200.00

Historian of aviation (1909-81) at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Eight items, various formats. Very good. LETTER ONE (two pages, octavo, 14 January 1949, on V & A letterhead): 'As a very new fellow of the Society I hesitate to burden you with reading the enclosed [an article on 'Father Gusmao: the first practical pioneer in aeronautics', not present], but I thought there might be some chance of its appearing in the Journal. It is too historical for the Roy. Aeronautical Society's Journal and too aeronautical for the others, so I am stuck!

Catalogue of the well-known collection of Ballooning and Aeronautical Prints and Drawings, the Property of Col. R.L. Preston

Author: 
Sotheby and Co
Publication details: 
20/03/62
£45.00

Printed wraps, illus.., fold mark mainly affecting covers, mainly v.g. NO estimate or price lists

CATALOGUE OF THE WELL-KNOWN COLLECTION OF BALLOONING AND AERONAUTICAL PRINTS AND DRAWINGS The Property of Col. R. L. Preston, C.B.E.

Author: 
[BALLOONING AND AERONAUTICAL PRINTS AND DRAWINGS] Sotheby & Co's auction catalogue of Col. R. L. Preston's collection
Publication details: 
[sale of 20 March 1962]; London: Sotheby & Co. 34 and 25 New Bond Street, W.1.
£50.00

8vo. Pages [2 +] 120. In good condition. Printed green wraps with crease along length of front wrap. Many illustrations. 'INDEX OF AERONAUTS' on verso of last leaf. An invaluable scholarly resource.

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