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two old letters and a piece of paper with handwriting on them
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,500
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Description
MERMOZ Jean 2 letters ‘Jean’, Toulouse, September–October 1930, to his ‘Beloved Mum’; 2 pages, each in-4, on letterhead bearing the names ‘Le Grand Hôtel Régina’ and ‘Grands Cafés de Toulouse’. An account of his accident on 30 August and his parachute jump. 4 September. He reassures his mother, saying he is getting better and better: ‘However, it will still take me a while to recover fully. I have torn muscles in my lower abdomen and an internal bruise caused by a bruised rib… no fractures. People have wondered how I managed to get off so lightly after a parachute descent with a speed estimated at 14 metres per second. I’m starting to walk a little more easily with a walking stick. In a few days, everything will certainly be back to normal. At 1,000 metres, whilst descending from 5,000 metres – where I’d climbed with a payload of 6,000 kg – I was performing a three-minute speed manoeuvre when I felt the fuselage twist and come apart. I tried to open the side door to jump out with my parachute… but it was impossible: the aeroplane was spiralling out of control and the warped fittings prevented me from getting through, so I threw myself towards the open hatch above my head, but I couldn’t squeeze through because of my shoulders; with my head sticking out, I saw the left wing break away. The 1,200-litre fuel tank split open behind me, drenching me in petrol, then the roof tore apart, crumbled to pieces, and I was one of the pieces of debris released by the aeroplane, which was literally pulverised as if it had been hit head-on by a shell. I fell freely for about one hundred and fifty to two hundred metres before the parachute opened… and then I suddenly felt myself suspended in mid-air following a violent jolt. I looked up and saw pieces of the aircraft crashing down onto my parachute and tearing it in many places; one of them tore off a 1.5-metre section, and naturally my rate of descent increased. The tail of the aeroplane passed 50 metres away from me. The impact with the ground was brutal; I landed on my legs, but the jolt snapped me in two’… His wife Gilberte added a few affectionate lines. 17 October. The first page is written by Gilberte Mermoz to ‘dear Mum Gaby’. Mermoz then reassures his mother… ‘On our return from Casablanca, we’re going to Marseille and from there to Paris for just a few days’… An autograph letter is enclosed, addressed ‘Maman Gaby’ to ‘My little Gilberte’ and ‘My Jean’ (3 pp., in-8). Provenance: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Passed down within the family
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Auction time 11/03/2026 at 11:00 AM
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