Notable group lot of 15 items relating to the world’s first official air mail, including:
A color postcard of a street in Bombay, 5.5 x 3.5, stamped on the reverse, Allahabad, February 18, 1911, with front featuring the official red frank, "First Aerial Post, U.P. Exhibition, Allahabad. 1911.” The world's first official mail flown by an airplane was sent from Allahabad to Naini on February 18, 1911, after people across the region brought mail to the Holy Trinity Church and delivered it to French pilot Henri Pequet.
A postcard photo of Pequet flying a biplane, 5.5 x 3.5, signed on the front in fountain pen by the pilot, who also signs the reverse and adds a brief note in French. At the age of 23, Pequet, who was in India for an airshow, delivered about 6,500 letters when he flew from an Allahabad polo field to Naini, about 10 kilometers away. He flew a Humber-Sommer biplane and made the journey in 13 minutes.
A first United Kingdom aerial postal envelope, 5.74 x 3.5, with one-penny stamp to upper right and red-tone cachet noting “For Conveyance by Aeroplane from London to Windsor.” Includes another with gray-tone cachet with “First United Kingdom Aerial Post” stamp dated September 9, 1911. The UK flights were planned to take place during September 1911, running between Hendon (north London) and Windsor. Special postal stationery postcards and envelopes in varying colors were produced pre-stamped with the new King George postage stamps.
Two First UK Aerial Post postal cards, 5.5 x 3.5, brown and gray-tone, with King George stamps and “First United Kingdom Aerial Post” postmarks dated September 9 and 16, 1911.
A vintage matte-finish 3.75 x 5.75 portrait of Earle Ovington, who signs and inscribes the photo in black ink. Ovington, an American aeronautical engineer, aviator and inventor, and lab assistant to Thomas Edison, piloted the first official airmail flight in the United States in a Blériot XI on September 23, 1911. Includes a group of seven early stamps and air mail labels, issued between 1913 and 1928. In overall very good to fine condition.
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