A silver cigarette box, hallmarked for London, 1924, decorat...

Hammer

£120

A silver cigarette box, hallmarked for London, 1924, decorated with a Gipsy Moth biplane numbered G-AAAO to the cover, the interior mounted with a damaged half button and engraved label marked 'Cracked June 29th 1931', 15cm wide x 5cm high. Provenance: Duchess of Bedford Mary du Caurroy Russell (née Tribe; September 26th 1865 – ca. March 22nd 1937), aka 'The Flying Duchess'. Sold with a news cutting regarding this box dated 1965; a copy of 'Flight International' discussing her plane and confirming a serial number match; and an original photograph from 1931, with one button not fastened on her flying coat. The newspaper states the silver cigarette box was found in a Portobello antique shop. In the 1920s, at 63, the Duchess became interested in aviation. She claimed it gave her some relief from her constant tinnitus, although she eventually became deaf. She turned a paddock at Woburn Abbey into a landing field and did her errands to nearby towns by plane. On August 2nd 1929, she departed on a record-breaking flight of 10,000 miles from Lympne Airport to Karachi, returning to Croydon Airport in eight days. She was accompanied in her single-engine Fokker F.VII Princess Xenia -which she renamed "The Spider" for its tenacity - by her pilot, Captain C. D. Barnard, and mechanic Robert Little. On April 8th, 1930, she made her first solo flight in her DH.60G Moth (G-AAAO).