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Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 2,500.00 USD
Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier

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Auction Date:2014 Sep 10 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Choice LS in French, signed “Montgolfier,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 6.5 x 9, January 2, 1786. Montgolfier pleads with Malesherbes to help his recently widowed brother, who had been left with nine children. The carefully worded and beautifully penned letter mentions the possibility of privileged schooling and an opportunity of a military career for some of the children. In fine condition, with central vertical and horizontal folds.

Born into a reputable family of paper manufacturers in Annonay, in Ardèche, France, brothers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier put their small town on the map in June of 1783 when they successfully carried out the first public unmanned hot air balloon flight there; five months later, before a distinguished crowd including King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Ben Franklin, they would demonstrate the first free flight by humans in their balloon. A rare letter concerning this important ‘first family’ of manned flight.