Alain GERBAULT

Superb set of five original photographs, depicting famous sailor and writer (then aviator) Alain Gerbault and his crew, returning from his first air combat, between Picardie and Champagne, on March 17, 1917.
Three of the photographs have penciled notes on the back. The same three bear the printed stamp "Mme Houx Delapierre, 55, Paul Boudet, 53000 Laval", Gerbault's home town.
Gerbault scored his first personal victory by shooting down an enemy aboard "Smash", aircraft no. 7 of the "Escadrille des Loups", whose number and wolf profile are clearly marked on the plane's fuselage in the photographs: "When he landed, his mechanic saw that it was no joke: the fuselage of his own plane is...

Autograph postcard, signed "Alain", addressed to Lucien Daniaux in Papeete, Tahiti, written on the reverse of a photographic portrait of a smiling young Polynesian woman. Stamp of Australian Papua, postal marks, English censorship stamp ("passed by censor").

 

Sent a few months before his death, this postcard documents the final journey of the French traveller, undertaken amid the hostile climate of the Second World War.

First edition, one of 20 copies on Japon, this copy specially printed for Madame Fasquelle, included in the copies hors commerce, the only grand papier (deluxe) copies.
Small tears to foot of spine on the edges, tiny spots, not serious, on the covers.
A nice and rare copy with edges preserved.

First edition, one of 162 numbered copies on alfa, the only deluxe copies after 45 on Rives vellum.
Light tears of no consequence at head and foot of spine.
Iconography includes one folding map, photographic cover.

First edition, one of 600 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies with 62 on pur fil.
Iconography.
Preface by J.B. Charcot.
Handsome copy.