?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
ERNEST MONTAUT (1879-1936) GRANDE SEMAINE D'AVIATION / REIMS. 1909. 63x48 inches. Montaut & Mabileau, Paris. Conditon A-: minor repaired tear in top and right margins. Europe's first international airshow was held in Paris at the Grand Palais in December 1908. By 1909 airshows were an incredible phenomenon that swept all across the European continent, drawing thousands and thousands of curious visitors. They remained a popular sensation for several years. The airshow at Reims in 1909 was the first large-scale aviation meeting held after Bleriot successfully flew across the English Channel and was a triumphant success. The meeting was attended by French President Fallieres along with many of his ministers, records were broken, Curtiss won the Gordon Bennett Cup, and not a single aviator died in an accident! Montaut had designed a large series of decorative panels highlighting early automobiles and airships, so he was a logical choice as the designer of this poster. His concept, of an elegant lady, seen from behind and waving at a fleet of planes in the twilight sky becomes somewhat of a standard formula for advertising early airshows (see Swann auction #1991 lot 115).
