?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
W.H.A. CONSTABLE (DATES UNKNOWN) INDIA / BY IMPERIAL AIRWAYS. Circa 1935. 29x20 inches, 73 1/2x50 1/2 cm. Stuarts, Kingsway House. Condition B+ / A-: repaired tears in margins; restored loss along left edge. Framed. "From its formation, in 1924, one of the roles of Imperial Airways was the binding together of far-flung parts of the Empire" (Handley Page 42). The Hannibal, (nicknamed the banana because of its ungainly shape) gliding over an Indian city on the banks of a river 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, Airways p. 55.
