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.

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! [...]' LETTER TWO (one page, 12mo, 10 September 1949, on V & A letterhead): '[A]s foreigners like letters and titles', provides a title for the article on a separate leaf (cancelled letterhead of 'THE ROYAL AERO CLUB'). LETTER THREE (two pages, quarto, no date, 'Pension Suliva | <?> | Switzerland'): Thanks Griggs for the galleys and asks if he can 'hold it up until I return as I have some new material at home which will need substituting about three lines of type'. Asks for 'rough block pulls' of the illustrations to be sent to the V & A. LETTER FOUR (one page, quarto, typed, 19 May 1951, on V & A letterhead): 'I now have in my hands the printed edition of your Cantor Lectures. May I say how much I like them, and how very nice they look in their new suit of clothes. | I am so glad that you have made such a careful record of the origins, because that is the subject which we here are most hazy about and had not got the documents. | By the way, I have just written a new introductory poster for the Exhibition here, in which I have again hammered home the origin of the Royal Society of Arts. | [...]'. From carbon of letter from Griggs (one page, quarto, 1 February 1949): 'You may remember that we met, I suppose two years ago, at Pam Churchill's, and afterwards dined together at the Savile. [...] About Christmas time, someone was telling me of an apparently hare-brained scheme to include a captive balloon among the attractions for the forthcoming "Chelsea Week" which takes place sometime in April. The person who was telling me about it seemed moderately serious on the matter and is a Member of the Organising Committee. I immediately thought of you as the expert on balloons [...]'.