?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
W.H.A. CONSTABLE (DATES UNKNOWN)
INDIA / BY IMPERIAL AIRWAYS. Circa 1933.
29x19 inches, 73 1/2x48 1/4 cm. Stuarts, Kingsway House, London. Condition A-: unobtrusive horizontal folds; small pin holes in corners; minor restoration in image.
"From its formation in 1924, one of the roles of Imperial Airways was the binding together of far-flung parts of the Empire. A Handley Page 42, the Hannibal (recognizable by its call letters G-AAGX and nicknamed "the banana" because of its ungainly shape) gliding over Delhi, expresses the romance of this important strategic function. The Royal Mail emblem is displayed on the door of a special compartment for the storage of mail bags. In 1934, the government announced plans for the All-Up Empire Mail scheme . . . by which a letter for any part of the Empire would automatically be sent by mail" (Riding the Skies p. 32). "The trip from London took a week, three times faster than going by boat. Passengers arrived in Egypt from Italy in flying boats and boarded the HP-42s for points further east" (Airways p. 55). Riding the Skies cover and p. 33, British Aviation 47, Airways p. 55.
