?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
F. HAUDEPIN (DATES UNKNOWN) RÉGIE AIR AFRIQUE. Circa 1936. 31x23 inches, 78 3/4x58 1/2 cm. Fehrenbach & Cie., Paris. Condition A-: minor restoration in margins; abrasions in image. Framed. "Regie Air Afrique was formed by the French Government in 1934 to help link the French colonies in Africa. On September 7, 1934, the first regular airmail service between Algiers and the Congo began" (Encyclopedia of African Airlines, by Ben R. Guttery, p. 17). The company began using 3-engine Bloch MB.120 aircraft in its early years. Equipped to carry three crew members and up to ten passengers, the aircraft was often operated with only a few passengers and more mail instead. In 1937, the French government merged the company with two other small lines to form Air Afrique. The particular aircraft depicted here, the "Sirius," was destroyed in an accident in 1939.
