Aborigines welcome English balloonists: "Greens Grosser Luftballon Imo Land deer Antipode" engraving.
Vienna: Bureau de Theaterzeitung, Rauhensteingasse no. 926, ca. 1846. Charles Green (1785-1870) was an early aeronautical pioneer, making hundreds of balloon ascents, many of them solo, some to astonishing heights, including one in which the balloon reached 27,146 feet or just over five miles. He ballooned in currents between 80 and 100 miles an hour, and on one ascent to 5,000 feet a companion jumped out of the car in a homemade parachute, unfortunately not surviving the landing. In 1836, Green ascended in the Royal Vauxhall Balloon, crossed the Channel, and landed in Nassau, Germany, floating a distance of almost 500 miles in under 18 hours.
The caricature spoofs Green's 1846 proposed trans-Atlantic balloon voyage, depicting the welcome festivities of a group of natives of the Antipodes, including an aboriginal woman dressed in elaborate western gown and bonnet, serving tea under an elegant canopy. The engraving by Johann Zinke, after J. Cajetan, from Satyrisches Bild, no. 47. The intrepid English balloonists disembark at the left from the pink and white hot air balloon, as a group of natives gape over the story illustrated in a London broadside "The Gallery of London, Three Pens" , as tea is being served at the right. Period hand colored copper engraving, a bit of foxing along the lower margin, original central fold. Image size 10 1/2 x 8", with margins. OCLC: 51753122; not listed individually in the British Museum catalogue, but from a German publication. Very good condition. Item #19994
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