The flight of animals in the Réveillon hot-air balloon at Versailles, September 19, 1783
The flight of animals in the Réveillon hot-air balloon at Versailles, September 19, 1783
Tortoiseshell snuffbox, the lid adorned with a mirror-glass miniature depicting the flight of the Réveillon hot-air balloon from Versailles on September 19, 1783, with four animals on board.
Inscribed “Le génie m'a formé et la fumée me soutient”. [Genius creates me and smoke sustains me]
Condition: minor damage to the scale and chips inside the glass/mirror
D : 6,5 cm
This was the first aerostatic flight with life on board in history.
In front of King Louis XVI and a large crowd, the hot-air balloon, the Réveillon (built by Etienne Montgolfier and paper manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon), flies away from Versailles carrying a live rooster, duck and sheep, and lands near the Bois de Vaucresson after an 8-minute flight, the animals still alive. True heroes of the air, the furry and feathered passengers were taken in by Louis XVI at the menagerie in Versailles. This considerable success opened the door to human flights, the first of which took place a month later in Paris by Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and André Giroud de Villette, in a captive balloon.
Inscribed “Le génie m'a formé et la fumée me soutient”. [Genius creates me and smoke sustains me]
Condition: minor damage to the scale and chips inside the glass/mirror
D : 6,5 cm
This was the first aerostatic flight with life on board in history.
In front of King Louis XVI and a large crowd, the hot-air balloon, the Réveillon (built by Etienne Montgolfier and paper manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon), flies away from Versailles carrying a live rooster, duck and sheep, and lands near the Bois de Vaucresson after an 8-minute flight, the animals still alive. True heroes of the air, the furry and feathered passengers were taken in by Louis XVI at the menagerie in Versailles. This considerable success opened the door to human flights, the first of which took place a month later in Paris by Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and André Giroud de Villette, in a captive balloon.
