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a piece of old paper with writing on it
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Estimate €800 - €1,000
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MERMOZ Jean L.A.S. ‘Ton Jean’, Buenos Aires, 26 March 1929, to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 2 pages, in-4, on tissue paper, via Aéropostal. Further complications for the flight; accidents in the Andes. He has not yet set off: ‘I returned from Chile three days ago… Two telegrams were waiting for me here, as well as a letter from the Ministry formally forbidding me from making any attempt at the flight. If I go ahead anyway, there will be severe penalties, it seems. Now I will only be allowed to leave France in an aeroplane carrying no more than 1,500 litres of petrol, which means I’ll have to set off from abroad. Furthermore, following new decrees just issued by Laurent Eynac, Hispano is reluctant to supply me with an engine. In short, I’ve been dealt another blow. The Count de la Vaulx has returned to France and has promised to try to obtain authorisation, as he is a personal friend of Laurent Eynac. So I am still waiting, waiting as ever… and a Spanish crew arrived in Brazil today non-stop from Seville with French equipment!! Anyway, I’m starting to come to terms with it and be patient. I’ll certainly have opportunities soon enough, as my contract expires in November.” He has just been through some terrible times: “I’ve just completed a 7,500-km journey, part of which was with the Count de la Vaulx. Two emergency landings in the middle of the mountains, from which I emerged by a miracle. One with the Count de la Vaulx, which nearly cost us our lives, and the other with my mechanic [Collenot], right in the heart of the Andes at an altitude of 4,000 metres, amidst the snow, a desert of stone. Pinned to the ground by a gust of wind, with the engine at full throttle, I was fortunately able to avoid a crash; we spent three days and two nights repairing the damage caused to the aircraft in temperatures of between 13 and 17 degrees below zero, without food – my mechanic having inadvertently forgotten our box of emergency rations – – literally gasping for breath after the exertions we were forced to endure due to the altitude, in the company of three condors that never left our side. In short, we were able to set off again after a take-off that I had calculated in advance, flying over three ravines which I had to clear with carefully timed and pre-determined manoeuvres; this take-off at 4,000 metres in the heart of the mountains will remain my fondest professional memory. A one-metre error and it would have been the end. Finally, after 3 km of running and leaping, I got my 3-tonne aircraft airborne and we were able to return to the point from which we had set off. No one could believe it. The Chilean pilots were sceptical, but they had to admit the truth after fetching a fuel tank and some tools that I’d left at our landing site to lighten our load. Both in Chile and here, the impression made was enormous. I was given a hero’s welcome on my arrival in Santiago. The Chileans made me an honorary member of their Aero Club, where they do not admit any foreigners.’ He was awarded medals. “The Count de la Vaulx, full of enthusiasm, asked that I be given the Aéro-Club de France plaque, and wanted to put my name forward for the Officer’s Rosette of the Legion of Honour. I told him I didn’t care about any of that and that permission to let me carry out my flight would please me a hundred times more”… Source: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Passed down through the family
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About the sale Historical Memories
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Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
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