FLYING

[Sir Dermot Boyle, Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Air Staff.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Dean’, regarding a signed photograph he is sending in place of a ‘very bad one’ which he urges him to destroy.

Author: 
Sir Dermot Boyle [Sir Dermot Alexander Boyle] (1904-1993), Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Air Staff
Publication details: 
9 August 1963; on letterhead of Pauls Place, Sway, Hampshire.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. At the foot of the second page, in another hand (no doubt that of the recipient) are written Doyle’s details in red ink. Signed ‘D. A. Boyle’ and addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Dean’. He is returning the photograph he has sent, ‘endorsed in the way you ask’, but his wife agrees with him that ‘the photo you have got hold of is a very bad one so I am sending you another - also enclosed - which I hope you will use for your collection and destroy the other’.

[Winifred Brown [Winifred Sawley Brown, later Adams], aviatrix, the first woman to win the King's Cup Air Race.] Autograph Signature ('Winifred Brown.') with short inscription.

Author: 
Winifred Brown [Winifred Sawley Brown, later Adams] (1899-1984), aviatrix, explorer, sportswoman, yachtswoman, in 1930 the first woman to win the King's Cup Air Race
Publication details: 
21 October 1931. No place.
£23.00

On one side of 8.5 x 11 cm piece of grey card, with rounded corners. In good condition, lightly aged. Neatly and simply written out (in response to a request for an autograph), reading: 'Best Wishes | Sincerely | Winifred Brown.' Date by Brown at bottom left. Endorsed in pencil at head: 'First woman to win King's Cup Air Race | 1930'.

[London Gliding Club, Dunstable Downs, Bedfordshire.] Manuscript 'Progress Log Book' of '[L Sennett?]', containing details of training flights with signed comments by instructors including J. M. Hands, G. R. Williams and J. Wingett.

Author: 
London Gliding Club, Dunstable Downs, Bedfordshire [J. M. Hands, G. R. Williams and J. Wingett, instructors]
Publication details: 
London Gliding Club [Dunstable Downs, Bedfordshire.] Entries dating from between 8 August 1960 and 11 June 1962.
£320.00

21pp, 12mo. In unpaginated stapled booklet of twelve leaves, in light-blue wraps. Printed on front cover: 'London Gliding Club | PROGRESS LOG BOOK', with space for the trainee's name and no. In fair condition, aged and worn, in worn covers, with one central horizontal fold. The trainee has written his name on the front cover, but this has been worn away, and it appears to read 'L Sennett' or 'L Bennett'. Printed on the first page is a list of twenty-four 'Flying Training Exercises'.

[ Sir Alan J. Cobham, English aviation pioneer. ] Circular printed letter in the form of a facsimile of a signed letter by him, thanking the recipient for making 'our Air Display a success'.

Author: 
Sir Alan John Cobham (1894-1973), English aviation pioneer, proprietor of the National Aviation Day Disply ('Cobham's Flying Circus')
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the National Aviation Day Display, National Aviation Displays Ltd. Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, W.C.2. Undated but with '1932 - 1933 - 1934 - 1935' across the head.
£35.00

Cobham started his National Aviation Day displays (known as "Cobham's Flying Circus") in 1932. These displays were a combination of barnstorming and joyriding by a team of skilled pilots in up to fourteen aircraft, ranging from single-seaters to modern airliners. The show toured the country, calling at hundreds of sites from regular airfields to fields cleared for the occasion. 1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, worn and ruckled. Nicely printed in black over a halftone red map of Great Britain and Ireland.

[Archive; flying; Atlantic Survey] Second Atlantic Survey Flight 1937 ("Cambria")

Author: 
[Air Superintendent's Master Copy]
Publication details: 
1937
£950.00

A collection of typescripts (carbons or mimeographs) and maps recording the details of the Second Atlantic Survey Flight by the "Cambria" in 1937, in binder, with punch-holes, all in good condition. ITEM 1. Mimeograph [?] 11pp., sm. fol. "Cambria" G-ADUV | Second Atlantic Survey Flight 1937 | FLIGHT LOG" inc. list of crew (G.J. Powell, Commander); ITEM 2. Typescript, 4pp., sm. fol. "Extracts of Log - Field Strengths - Observations at Bridge 6 [...]"; ITEM 3. Typescript, 5pp., sm. fol., as ITEM 2 but later; ITEM 4. Typescript, 3pp., sm. fol. As 2 & 3 but a few days later; ITEM 5.

[ Sarony Virginia Cigarettes. ] Printed 'Travel Album' titled 'A Day on the Airway', with foreword by Sir Alan Cobham, containing complete set of 25 cigarette cards depicting a journey from Croydon Aerodrome to Amsterdam.

Author: 
[ Nicolas Sarony & Co., New Bond Street, London; Sir Alan Cobham; Imperial Airways; British aviation; Croydon Aerodrome; Amsterdam, Holland ]
Publication details: 
Issued by Nicolas Sarony & Co., New Bond Sreet, London, W.1. [ 1928 ]
£100.00

A charming and evocative production. Cards in very good condition; album in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Initial note: 'This Travel Album is issued without charge to hold a complete set of twenty-five "A Day on the Airway" pictures, as issued with all packings of Sarony Virginia Cigarettes, plain or cork tipped.' The album comprises eight pages printed in black and green, on thick paper, stitched into black card wraps. Embossed on the front cover in faded gold is the title and an illustration of the plane (an Imperial Airways 'Argosy') flying in clouds.

[ Col. S. F. Cody, American aviator and showman. ] Black and white postcard photograph captioned, 'Col. S. F. Cody with Indian Chief in his Aeroplane.'

Author: 
[ Colonel S. F. Cody [ Samuel Franklin Cody; Samuel Franklin Cowdery ] (1867-1913), American aviator and showman; Native American 'Indian Chief' ]
Publication details: 
Place, publication details and date not stated [circa 1910?].
£80.00

9 x 14 cm black and white postcard. In frail condition, aged, worn and chipped, with near-vertical central crease repaired on reverse with archival tape. Removed from album, and with traces of newsprint adhering to the reverse. The caption scratched into the plate and appearing in small white capitals at the foot of the image. Shows Cody in near-profile, seated at the controls of a biplane which is pointing to the left of the image, with a Native American in robes and headdress seated to his right. The central part of the plane is shown, with woodland behind it.

[Royal investiture, Buckingham Palace, 1943.] Printed programme of an 'Investiture at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, the 11th of May, 1943, at 11 o'clock a.m.'

Author: 
[King George VI; Royal investiture, Buckingham Palace, 1943.]
Publication details: 
Buckingham Palace [London]. 11 May 1943.
£120.00

7pp., folio. On seven leaves of thick paper, stapled together. In fair condition, aged and worn. Annotated in grey and blue pencil. Ownership inscription at head: 'Mr. Mann'. Divided into subsections, with the main ones being the Distinguished Service Order; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire; The Distinguished Service Cross; The Distinguished Flying Cross. Ten individuals receive the Military Cross, beginning with 'Major Thomas Scrymsoure-Steuart-Fothringham, The Black Watch'.

[Printed prospectus; motor car; aviation] Agenda de L'Automobile et de l'Aviation. Edité par F. Mussche, Directeur de la revue "Electro".

Author: 
[F. Mussche, Directeur de la revue "Electro", 14, rue du Méridien, Bruxelles] [Brussels, Belgium]
Publication details: 
'F. Mussche, éditeur, rue du Méridien, 14, Bruxelles.' [Brussels, Belgium.] 1911.
£56.00

8pp., 12mo. Stapled and unbound, and with last leaf a perforated subscription form. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper, with rusting to staple.

[Privy Council Medical Research Council] Printed Item: 'The Application of the Air Force Physical Efficiency Tests to Men and Women.'

Author: 
Lucy D. Cripps, M.B., D.P.H. [Privy Council Medical Research Council; Royal Air Force]
Publication details: 
Special Report Series, No. 84. London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1924.
£130.00

48 + [4]pp., 8vo. Stapled. In green printed wraps. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Divided into ten chapters, including 'Royal Air Force Tests used in the Present Investigation' and 'Types of Respiration, and the Respiratory Apparatus in Men and Women'. An interesting document: the Royal Air Force only having been in existence for six years. With stamp, shelfmark and label of the Board of Education Reference Library. Four copies on COPAC, and uncommon.

[Duplicated First World War school magazine.] Our Own. The Magazine of Sidmouth St Boys' Demonstration School. Boys' Dept. HULL. [The first fourteen issues, including a 'Shakespere Tercentenary Number'.

Author: 
[Sidmouth Street Boys' Demonstration School, Hull, Yorkshire.] [Shakespeare Tercentenary, 1916; Sidmouth Street Football Club; Dudley Murton Freeling (b.1899), Royal Flying Corps]
Publication details: 
[Sidmouth Street Boys' Demonstration School, Hull.] Issues 1 to 14. Dating from between 1913 and April 1919.
£250.00

Totalling 280pp., 8vo (each issue 20pp), with aditional grey card printed covers to issues 13 and 14. The first twelve issues are bound up, without covers, in a black leather half-binding with black cloth boards. As the covers are lacking it is only possible to date these issues from the gilt title on the spine: 'OUR OWN | 1913-6'. Ownership inscription on front free endpaper: 'Cecil Thom | 22 Nov. 1916.' (Henry E. Thom appears to have been a music teacher at the school.) Modern bookplate of John Gadd on front pastedown. Issues 13 (March 1917) and 14 (April 1919) are loosely inserted.

[Duplicated typescript of humorous poem, marked 'SECRET | Official Use only!'] The Air Ministry Who's Who.

Author: 
[The Air Ministry, Whitehall, London, government department dealing with the Royal Air Force between 1918 and 1964]
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [The Air Ministry, Whitehall, London. 1940s?]
£80.00

2pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with small ink stains to two corners and short closed tears at the ends of a central vertical crease line. On paper with 'Ellams 22' watermark. Beneath the title: 'Note: All names guaranteed genuine, from the "London" section of the October telephone directory.' The poem consists of seven four-line verses and six different choruses.

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.

[Offprint.] The Wilde Lecture. V. The Mechanical Principles of Flight. By the Rt. Hon. Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. Delivered February 13th, 1900.

Author: 
Rt. Hon. Lord Rayleigh [John William Strutt (1842-1919), 3rd Baron Rayleigh, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics] [The Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society]
Publication details: 
Manchester: 36, George Street. 26 April 1900. [Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lxiv. (1899), No. 5; Memoirs and Proceedings of The Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society 1899-1900.]
£95.00

26pp., 12mo. Stitched. In remains of original printed wraps. On aged paper, in chipped wraps, with several leaves loose. An important work in the history of eronautics by one of the great experimental physicists of the nineteenth century. Excessively scarce: no copy of this offprint in the British Library or on COPAC. 'In this lecture Rayleigh discusses the method of calculating the mechanical forces on a plane presented obliquely to a current of air, so far as this can be done. At best, the calculation is very incomplete.

Material mainly relating to the Second World War and the Battle of Britain, from the papers of Flying Office Robert French Helm, Royal Air Force, including autograph material, photographs, tables.

Author: 
Flying Officer Robert French Helm (1913-1995), Royal Air Force [The Battle of Britain]
Publication details: 
The photographs date from the 1940s; the rest of the material circa 1960.
£400.00

Helm's promotion on 3 September 1940 to the rank of Flying Officer (41020) is recorded in the London Gazette, 15 October 1940. After the war he joined the International Civil Aviation Authority, working in Iran and Zambia, and was elected to the Membership of the Institute of Navigation, Royal Geological Society, in 1971. A total of 59pp., 8vo, of pencil notes and tables by Helm, relating to the RAF in the Second World War, with 6 original photographs.

Five items from the papers of Robert French Helm, relating to his post-war career at the International Civil Aviation Authority, including a report and plans on the 'Zambianization of the Air Traffic Services Division', and two chapters of memoirs.

Author: 
Robert French Helm (1913-1995), of the International Civil Aviation Authority, a Royal Air Force Flying Officer in the Second World War [Institute of Navigation, Royal Geographical Society]
Publication details: 
Undated [relating to events in the 1950s and 1960s], apart from the certificate, which is from 1971.
£220.00

ONE: Mimeographed typed document titled 'Zambianization of the Air Traffic Services Division of the Department of Civil Aviation'. 7pp., foolscap 8vo, with eighth page carrying table of contents. Undated [mid 1960s]. Given that the plans accompanying this item are initialed by Helm, it seems reasonable to assume that this report is also his work.

[Book] Der Fallschirm: seine geschichtliche Entwicklung und sein technisches Problem

Author: 
Gustav von Falkenberg
Publication details: 
Berlin, 1912 [Bibliothek fur Luftschiffahrt und Flugtechnik, band 8].
£150.00

[192]pp, 8vo, including three pages of advertisements, corners bumped, hinge strain front endpaper, mainly good condition. Ex lib Royal Aeronautical Society (bookplate inside cover) with library shelf marks on half-title and elsewhere. Inscribed by the Author as follows, With the best thanks and compliments | of the author | Gustav von Falkenberg || (see p.5, 6, and 92). These page references indicate that the deicatee is T. O'Brian Hubbartd who features on these pages.

Typed Letter Signed ('Holbrook Jackson') to G. S. Tomkinson of Whitville, Kidderminster.

Author: 
George Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948) [Sir Geoffrey Stewart Tomkinson (1881-1963); Lovat Fraser; Flying Fame; Fleuron; New Age Press; fine printing; bibliography]
Publication details: 
26 February 1925; Regent House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2.
£100.00

8vo: 2 pp. 32 lines of text. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is willing to help Tomkinson with his book 'Modern Presses', but would not 'have time to be responsible for the writing of any chapters'. Offers to answer 'a questionnaire' regarding 'Flying Fame', and directs Jackson to his 'articles on the work of Lovat Fraser in the "Bookman", the "Fleuron", and "To-day".' Paragraph discusses the 'New Age Press', which 'was not a Press at all, but a publishing business'. In the last paragraph changes his mind, and offers to write a brief chapter.

Handbill poem entitled 'Baron Böhmbig [Bohmbig], or the Rival Jumpers.'

Author: 
[Jonathan Blewitt (1782-1853), English composer] [The Flying Dutchman]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [London, 1850s?]
£75.00

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, 32.5 x 24 cm. Text clear and complete, on aged paper with chipping and closed tears to edges. The only copy of this title on COPAC is at the British Library (folio, 4 pp, published by Zenas T. Purday), where it is ascribed to Blewitt and tentatively dated to around 1850. Six eight-line stanzas with chorus 'Jump high, jump low, jumping we go.' Possibly written with satiric intent.

List of publications 'At the Sign of Flying Fame' in the form of a handbill.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER; RALPH HODGSON; HOLBROOK JACKSON]
Publication details: 
PRINTED BY A. T. STEVENS, OF 55 ST. MARTIN'S LANE, IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, FOR R.H., L.F., AND H.J., AT THEH SIGN OF FLYING FAME, 45 ROLAND GARDENS, | LONDON, S.W., WHERE COPIES MAY BE HAD. | 1913.'
£20.00

Printed on pink [faded from red?] unwatermarked paper, with cream backing. Dimensions of paper roughly fourteen centimeters by thirty-three centimeters. A frail ephemeral item. Lightly creased, and with further creasing and closed tears at head and foot, and minor loss at head. Faded, and with further fading at head. Headed 'At the Sign of Flying Fame.' Illustration by Lovat Fraser of mounted seventeenth-century man blowing bugle over cityscape. 'LIST OF PUBLICATIONS' includes details of six broadsides and four chap-books.

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'.

Advertisement, with photographic illustrations and diagram, entitled 'The "Bristol" Bombay. Bomber - Transport - Troop Carrier.'

Author: 
The Bristol Bombay Bomber-Transport [Royal Air Force; aviation; aeronautics]
Publication details: 
Temple Press Ltd., Bowling Green Lane, London, E.C.1. 6062-39'. [1939]
£56.00

8vo bifolium: 4 pp. On art paper. Unbound. On aged and creased paper. Clear and complete. Arranged as a magazine article, with the text in two columns. Six photographs of the exterior and interior of the plane. Two diagrams, including one full-page and extremely detailed cross-section, captioned 'The Bristol Bombay Bomber-Transport | (Two 1,010 h.p. Bristol Pegasus XXII motors).'

Autograph Note Signed to "Monsieur le Directeur du Journal Le Siecle" WITH printed letter to Durnoz from "Un habitant du Creuzot"

Author: 
J. Durnof.
Publication details: 
(Durnof) Paris le 21 Octobre 1874 (le Creuzot) 20 Octobre 1874.
£425.00

Pioneer airman / aeronaut. Form googled site: "Mr. Durnof, aeronaut, founder with Nadar and Camille Dartois of the Company of the military francs balloon pilots, and Mrs. Durnof". (Durnof) One page, 4to, referring to a medal he has received and the printed letter whivch accompanies this note, Durnof asks for a few words in "votre estimabe journal".

Twenty-one Typed Letters Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Captain John Laurence Pritchard [The Royal Aeronautical Society]
Publication details: 
Between 1931 and 1934; all on letterhead of the Royal Aeronautical Society, of which Pritchard was secretary.
£100.00

Novelist and writer on aeronautics (1885-1968). All items one page, quarto. As a whole good, though grubby, but some items with pin holes, closed tears, etc. Most bearing the R.S.A. stamp and some docketed. Three items with enclosures. The items are dry communications relating to the arranging of R.A.S. lectures at the R.S.A.

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!

A garland of new songs by L. F.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER; RALPH HODGSON; HOLBROOK JACKSON; AT THE SIGN OF FLYING FAME]
Publication details: 
PRINTED BY A. T. STEVENS, OF 55 ST. MARTIN'S LANE | IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, FOR FLYING FAME, | 45 ROLAND GARDENS, LONDON, S.W., WHERE | COPIES MAY BE HAD FROM THE | SECRETARY. | [short rule] | 1913.'
£56.00

Eight pages, 12mo. Unbound and unstitched. Unfolds into a single leaf. Paper watermarked 'OAKWOOD | FINE VELLUM'. Five different illustrations (one of which is duplicated). Grubby, spotted and with small closed tears and fraying along one edge (not affecting text or illustrations). 'PRICE FOURPENCE PLAIN; SIXPENCE COLOURED.' This copy is uncoloured.

A garland of portraitures.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER; RALPH HODGSON; HOLBROOK JACKSON; AT THE SIGN OF FLYING FAME]
Publication details: 
PRINTED BY A. T. STEVENS, OF 55 ST. MARTIN'S LANE | IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, FOR FLYING FAME, | 45 ROLAND GARDENS, LONDON, S.W., WHERE | COPIES MAY BE HAD FROM THE | SECRETARY. | [short rule] | 1913.'
£56.00

Eight pages, 12mo. Unbound and unstitched. Unfolds into a single leaf. Paper watermarked 'OAKWOOD | FINE VELLUM'. Three illustrations. Good, but paper slightly discoloured and with some spotting. 'PRICE 2 PENCE PLAIN, 4 PENCE COLOURED.' This copy is uncoloured.

Illustrated handbill for two of his publications.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER]
Publication details: 
Without date or place [1916].
£85.00

Printed on unwatermarked tissue paper. Dimensions of paper roughly seven and a half centimeters by eleven and a half. A very good copy of a frail and ephemeral item. An attractive illustration by Fraser of an ivy-clad wall memorial topped by a cherub encloses the following 'There are Published | I. Farewell to the Faeries, by Richard Corbett. | II. Three Poems, by Kenneth Hare. | Decorated and Published by C. Lovat Fraser, and can be obtained from Everard Meynell, 46 Museum Street, W.C. | [short rule] | Price SIXPENCE each, net.'

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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