?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
GEORGES VILLA GRANDE SEMAINE D'AVIATION. 1910. 51x37 inches. Emile Wolf, Rouen. Condition B: expert overpainting and restoration in margins and image. In the early days of aviation, competitive meets proved to be incredibly popular events and posters were used to advertise them. Here several flying machines, their wings illuminated by the fiery orange of the setting sun are soaring above the famous Rouen Cathedral and the city's winding river and hills. In the center of the image, the personification of flying machines and perhaps the "Spirit of Flight" herself, "a robed female figure spreading her wings in emulation of a speeding monoplane" (Villard / Allen p. 59). Curiously this poster may have been released before the actual dates of the event were firmly established, as most copies of the poster have the Meeting taking place from June 19th to 26th. Villard/ Allen pl. 38.
