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two pages of old paper with handwriting on them
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,500
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MERMOZ Jean 2 letters ‘Mermoz’ and ‘Ton Jean’, Buenos Aires, 3 and 17 May 1929, to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 3½ and 4 pages, in-8 format, on Aeroposta paper. Crossing the Andes. 3 May. He reassures her. ‘I’ve pulled off another narrow escape this time! I had only a one-in-a-hundred chance of not losing my life. I took that chance. But what a feat!! It borders on the impossible, on legend. None of the pilots who have crashed in the Cordillera have made it back. As a result, I’ve become a flying sensation and the whole of Argentina is singing my praises. I reckon if anything were to happen to me, they’d give me a state funeral. The French community recently held a grand celebration in my honour, and the ambassador presented me with a gold medal struck especially for me. The Company has presented me with 20,000 francs. The Count de la Vaulx has put forward my name for appointment as an officer of the Legion of Honour. In short, you see, my dear Mum, there’s absolutely no need to worry. I’m doing well, apart from my ever-present tapeworm”… After his leave, he plans to return to South America: “Financially, I couldn’t do any better anywhere else. And besides, I’m now chief pilot for the entire route, and they’re counting on me to carry out reconnaissance flights for all the new sections to be established. I’m setting off in July or August for the West Indies in a seaplane, and I might even go as far as New York. And besides, I’m caught up in the whirlwind. Perhaps we’ll be taking on the Indochina route. So I can’t see an end to my travels”… 17 May. He returns “from a second trip to the Argentine Cordillera to organise the landing strips for our Chilean route, which I’m due to inaugurate and begin next month, but this time with special aircraft that are on their way to us. The route will be tough. Over six hours at an altitude of 6,000 metres on both the outbound and return legs. Naturally, as chief pilot, it falls to me to fly the first few flights; that doesn’t bother me – quite the contrary. I love a challenge and overcoming obstacles. Now that they’re calling me the ‘French Lindbergh’ here, noblesse oblige… hmm! I was due to leave for Cayenne earlier. We’re going to open a route in that direction. […] There is talk of granting us concessions in Indochina, Siam and Japan, and then Madagascar. Now I’m caught up in the whirlwind and scheduled for future assignments”… Source: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Then passed down through the family
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Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
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