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a letter written in blue ink on a piece of paper
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,200
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Description
MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Mermoz’, Casablanca, 14 June 1927, to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 2 pages in-4 and 2 pages in-8 in blue ink (slightly water-stained). Search for Érable’s remains. After mentioning accounts and financial problems, he announces: ‘As soon as I’ve flown a little more, in America and Persia, I’ll settle in Paris—either at Paris-London or at Maison Bréguet, where Denain has offered to get me a job—and this time you’ll come and live with me, because, you know, I have absolutely no desire to get married. Aviation is mistress enough for me. […] Colonel Denain is going to introduce me to Bréguet, Pothez and Renault whilst I’m on leave, so that they’ll give me a racing aeroplane for next year. What luck! […] I’d have liked to spend a few days in Lille for the air show. I put in a request, but unfortunately, two pilots from Dakar are returning due to ill health, and I was told that, as a result, it was a shame the air show is in June. As for America, the Aéroplace managers are starting to set off to prepare the airfields and hangars. I’ll know where I stand before I go on leave. I’d really like to go as soon as possible. Because after that there’ll be the Paris–Tehran race and I hope to take part in it”… During his stay in Juby, he managed to obtain ‘permission to retrieve the remains of our unfortunate comrade Érable, who was killed alongside Gourp, and of the mechanic Pintado. This permission had been refused six times by the Governor of Juby. I took two Moors with me and landed alone at the spot where the tragedy took place. Unfortunately, over the past seven months, the unburied bodies had fallen prey to the jackals and hyenas that are so numerous there, and I found nothing but the site itself, with fragments of bones. I simply found Érable’s hair, one of his socks and a piece of his shirt; then, as the Moors approached, I only had time to take off again in a hurry. Today I am sending the few mementoes I was able to find to his mother. She will always have a little bit of him. I was given a bit of a telling-off, just for the sake of it, for taking an unnecessary risk, but it was something that had been close to my heart for far too long’…. Correspondence, no. 116. Source: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Passed down through the family
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Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
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