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Auction: 19015 - The Philatelic Collectors' Series Sale
Lot: 2003

(x) South Africa
1907 (12 Oct.) Mammoth Balloon Flight
1907 (12 Oct.) Daily Graphic newspaper "A Message from Mid-Air" sponsored postcard from Crystal Palace to Sea Point, Cape Town, sent unfranked with explanatory message "Shall like to hear when this curiosity in post-cards reaches you. Could not stamp it because nobody knew it what country it would be picked up & posted. Will send postage when I hear" dated 5 September, showing Tösse, Sweden datestamp (14.10), superb oval-framed "t/2d/c.t." tax handstamp and Three Anchor Bay arrival datestamp (5.11); trace of a vertical crease and traces of soiling, otherwise fine and, to date, the only postcard from this flight addressed to South Africa. Photo

Note: The "Mammoth" ascended with three men on board:
J.L. Tanner (owner), A.E. Caudron (a balloonist) and C. Turner of the Daily Graphic. The balloon reached Sweden on 14 October. The aeronauts mistook the Swedish Lake Vännern for the open Atlantic and crash-landed near the village of Bracken. The aeronauts left the balloon which broke up and finally came to land at Tösse with cards scattered over a large area

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Sold for
£400