May 05, 2016 - Sale 2413

Sale 2413 - Lot 29

Price Realized: $ 3,900
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
ARCHIVE OF ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS DOCUMENTING AIRCRAFT WITH HOLOGRAPH CAPTIONS (AVIATORS.) CURTISS, GLENN HAMMOND. Autograph Manuscript Signed, "Curtiss," "G.H. Curtiss," or in full, 11 times in the third person within the text, captions for photographs, with a small holograph diagram of two airplanes. With over 45 original photographs of seaplanes, dirigibles, hangars, friends and relations, etc. The captions, together 8 pages, 8vo, written on two folded sheets; short closed separations at folds, minor scattered soiling, some pages written vertically. The photographs, including many with numerals written at upper left corresponding to the numbered captions, various sizes between 1 1/2x2 1/2 inches and 6x8 inches, most mounted in an album, 1-5 per page on recto and verso. Oblong 8vo, cloth, bound together with string; mildew aroma, some photos dampstained, many photos with moderate mirroring to dark areas. Np, circa 1917

Additional Details

"1 Rear view of center section of the NC 1, the machine which flew with 52 men aboard.
"2 Front view of NC 1 center section showing the three Liberties & their propellers.
"3 Rear view center section of NC 2, an improvement over the NC 1. Two 'tractors' & one 'pusher' instead of three 'tractors.' . . .
"5 Rear view of NC 2 with AMH[Augustus Moore Herring?] sitting alongside for comparison.
"6 Side view of NC 2 with AMH under end of wing for comparison. The thing in left foreground is the tail of the NC 1. The NC 2 tail does not show in picture. Their position in hangar was as shown in sketch. Picture taken from 'X' [Diagram showing two airplanes from above and an 'X']. . . .
"10 Showing method of blocking up tail for repair work on hull or hull bottom. . . .
"13 Fuselage of small non-rigid dirigible airship 'Blimp.' . . .
"17 Blimp hangar Rockaway.
"1 Motor Iceboating. The first attempt to use a Curtiss motor with an air propeller.
"2 No. 1-Red Wing. The first aeroplane to make a public flight in America on March 17th 1908, when it flew 319 ft. from the ice on Lake Keuka, N.Y. F[rederick] W[alker] Baldwin, Aviator. Aeroplane was wrecked.
"3 The old racetrack at Hammondsport. Left to rt, A[ugustus] M[oore] Herring, F.W. Baldwin, Glenn H. Curtiss, Charles Manley, Lt. T[homas] Selfridge, J[ohn] A[lexander] D[ouglas] McCurdy, Allen R. Hawley.
"4 No. 2. White Wing. The first aeroplane to make public flight starting from the ground with J.A.D. McCurdy, Aviator, May 8th 1908, at Hammondsport, N.Y.
"5 No. 3 June Bug. G.H. Curtiss winning the Scientific American Trophy at Hammondsport, N.Y., July 4th 1908, flying one kilometer ([five-eighths] of a mile).
"6 No. 4-Silver Dart. J.A.D. McCurdy, Aviator, showing the first water cooled motor made by the Curtiss Motor Co. 40 H.P. McCurty made a 14 mile flight in this machine over the ice at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, March 2nd 1909.
"7 The Loon; it was the old June Bug transformed into a hydro & flown from Lake Keuka in Dec 1908. This first attempt at a water aeroplane. . . .
"9 The first flying boat. Curtiss with Augustus port as passenger. Flying over Lake Keuka. . . .
"11 Glenn Curtiss, Henry Ford & F Boat at Hammondsport. . . .
"19 Closeup view of 'The America.' Poster idea of a Trans-Atlantic flyer. . . .
"23 [Samuel Pierpont] Langley's aeroplane. It was designed & built by Prof. Langley assisted by Charles Manley who designed & built the motor. On trial flight over Potomac near Washington D.C. it fell. Became a relic at Smithsonian Institute. Later brought to H[?] & then flown.
"24 The Cygnet #2. A tetrahedral Kite designed by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Built at Baddeck, Nova Scotia. It contained 3,960 tetrahedral cells all covered with red silk & driven with motor from Silver Dart. J.A.D. McCurdy, Aviator. . . .
"27 Ruth Law on Curtiss machine with Wright type controls.
"Lincoln Beachey in Curtiss plane."
with--A scrapbook containing newspaper and magazine clippings showing Curtiss and other aircraft and engines, including the NC-1, NC-4, Curtiss 18-2, Sperry seaplane, Burgess HT-2, Macchi seaplane, Martin Scout K III, Martin Night Bomber, Wittemann-Lewis Model T-T, Caproni Bomber, DH 9A, Boeing CL4S, the De Haviland 5, Dayton-Wright "Messenger," U.S.N. Goodyear dirigible, R-34, Sunbeam engine, Napier 450 engine, and others. Mounted 1-4 per page on recto and verso. Oblong 8vo, cloth, bound together with string. Circa 1917.