Early Aviation Photography from the Career of Carlo Francesco Lombardi to Be Auctioned on March 11

A uncommon assortment of early aviation glass lantern slides documenting the long-distance flights of Italian aviator Carlo Francesco Lombardi shall be provided on the market at Roseberys London, UK, on March 11. The group of historic photographic slides, estimated at £800–£1,200 ($1,071–$1,606 approx.), is believed to signify a few of the earliest surviving examples of aviation pictures.

The assortment consists of round 200 gelatin silver glass slides together with a hand-built wood slide viewer. According to the public sale home, the fabric comes immediately from the Lombardi household. Lombardi, usually referred to as Francis Lombardi, was an influential determine within the growth of Italian aviation in the course of the first half of the twentieth century. He started flying throughout World War I, serving as a fighter pilot on the age of 17. During the warfare, he was credited with eight aerial victories and acquired three Silver Medals for Military Valor.

In the years after the warfare, Lombardi grew to become intently linked with Italy’s early long-distance flight efforts. During the Twenties and early Thirties, he flew the Fiat AS.1 on a number of bold routes, together with a flight from Rome to Mogadishu, a circuit of the African continent, and a journey from Vercelli to Tokyo. Beyond his flying profession, he additionally based Azionaria Vercellese Industrie Aeronautiche (AVIA) in his hometown of Vercelli, the place the corporate centered on the design and manufacturing of sunshine coaching and touring plane. After World War II, Lombardi performed a task in rebuilding elements of the Italian aviation trade. Among different tasks, he helped convert surplus army plane such because the Macchi C.205 and Fiat G.55 for civilian use. He remained energetic in aviation for a few years afterward.

The glass slides themselves carry particular person captions that doc Lombardi’s travels and flights. Among them are slides labeled “Arrivo a Mogadiscio,” displaying his arrival and reception in Mogadishu, and “Arrivo a Tokyo,” recording the tip of his journey to Japan. Another slide titled “Roma-Mogadiscio” reveals a route map of the African flight with a desk itemizing its phases, whereas an aerial {photograph} captures Lombardi’s plane in flight with the registration I-AAVE seen over a city under.

Additional slides depict plane and crowds on the Mogadishu airfield beneath the caption “Mogadiscio,” together with a bunch {photograph} titled “Lombardi e piloti,” displaying Lombardi and different aviators standing in entrance of an plane in flying gear. “The Lombardi slides are very early examples of aviation photography; they capture flying at a moment of transition, when long-distance flight was moving from experiment to viable reality. The survival of such a large, coherent group from a single aviator’s career is exceptional, particularly with direct family provenance,” stated Anna Evans, Head of Fine & Decorative at Roseberys.

Glass lantern slides date again to the seventeenth century, though they grew to become much more frequent in the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after the event of pictures. Gelatin silver slides have been broadly used starting within the Eighteen Nineties for lectures, scientific demonstrations, and academic displays. The pictures have been produced by contact-printing a photographic unfavourable onto a light-sensitive gelatin layer, which was then sealed between two items of glass. When projected by means of a magic lantern utilizing candlelight, limelight, and later electrical illumination, the slides allowed audiences to view distant occasions and areas a long time earlier than movement photos and trendy projection techniques grew to become widespread. Their use continued into the Nineteen Forties earlier than being progressively changed by movie.

The public sale additionally features a number of Lombardi memorabilia related to his aviation profession. Among the gadgets is a silvered bronze and verde antico marble trophy awarded after the 1929 Challenge International de Tourisme. The trophy is topped by a winged determine of Nike and bears an inscription to Lombardi. Other items within the group embody framed supplies documenting Lombardi’s flights and plane. One spotlight is a big route map displaying a number of of his main journeys, together with Vercelli–Tokyo, Rome–Addis Ababa, Rome–Mogadishu, and the Periplo Africano, with distances and dates marked.

The lot additionally comprises pictures of the Fiat AS.1 monoplane, a Savoia-Marchetti S.71, and Lombardi’s Fiat 501 in the course of the 1922 Circuito del Garda. Additional pictures present the AS.1 with plane from the Frecce Tricolori flying behind it. The group additional features a studio-style frontal {photograph} of a single-engine plane, a replica of an early {photograph} of a pioneering biplane in flight, and several other different aviation-related pictures related with Lombardi’s profession. For extra details about Roseberys London, click on on this hyperlink: www.roseberys.co.uk.