Blanchards acsent at Lille 1785
Blanchard's Ascent at Lille: 1785
JEAN-PIERRE BLANCHARD, who won renown by being the first to cross the English Channel (with Dr. Jeffries) on January 7th, 1785, went all over Europe and to the U.S.A. making ascents, many of them "first" in the countries visited. Here, on August 26th, 1785, he is taking up the Chevalier de l'Espinard from an enclosure so well guarded that the whole occasion looks more like a military parade than a gay balloon ascent. The engraved title to the print reminds us how many ascents had been made by this "petulant little fellow, not many inches over five feet, and physically well suited for vapourish regions”, as he was described: this flight at Lille was his fourteenth. There is an equally accomplished engraving of the two aeronauts being escorted back to the city in triumph, made as a companion piece to the print reproduced here.
C. H. GIBBS-SMITH
One of 12 prints from the Collections of the Royal Aeronautical Society reproduced by the Society to marl its Centenary in i 966—No. 7
Original size 38.5cm by 35.5cm
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