Handkerchief
Detail of a hot air balloon
Blockprinted cotton
Mull house , about 1783-4
Victoria and Albert Museum
What an amazing find from the V&A museum! I did wonder about the hat and costume of the men in the balloon. So a quick look at Wikipedia revealed
"The brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier developed a hot air balloon in Annonay, Ardeche, France, and demonstrated it publicly on September 19, 1783 with an unmanned flight lasting 10 minutes. After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals, the first balloon flight with humans aboard—a tethered flight—performed on or around October 15, 1783 by Etienne Montgolfier who made at least one tethered flight from the yard of the Reveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Later that same day, Pilatre de Rozier became the second human to ascend into the air, to an altitude of 24 m (79 ft) which was the length of the tether. The first free flight with human passengers occurred a few weeks later, on November 21, 1783. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier, along with Marquis François d'Arlandes, petitioned successfully for the honor.The first military use of a hot air balloon happened during the battle of Fleurus in Europe (1794), with the French using the balloon l'Entreprenant as an observation post."
Thank you Kristie for this awesome balloon card!!
Sent: 29 November 2013
Received: 18 December 2013
Travelled: 19 days
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