NADAR [Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820–1910)]. [Unidentified - Lot 204

NADAR [Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820–1910)]. [Unidentified artist]. “Le Géant de Nadar” cigar set, circa 1865. Painted wooden base topped with two matchboxes, a scraper, and a model hot-air balloon featuring a painted wooden cigar-cutter basket and a container for holding cigars. Hollow, painted wooden balloon with hinges. Small inclusions of decorative metal elements. Metal lettering reading “Le Géant” on the balloon. Label beneath the base with handwritten inscription: “Smoker’s set. Le Géant de Nadar, 1865 [illegible] .” Dimensions: 33.5 x 19.5 x 19.5 cm. Bibliography: Alix Chevallier, *Nadar*, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, March 19–May 16, 1965, entry 341. Once part of the collection of Charles Dollfus, director of the Meudon Museum of Aeronautics, this cigar case was featured in 1965 in the exhibition dedicated to Félix Nadar at the Bibliothèque Nationale. A passionate enthusiast of aeronautics, the famous photographer Nadar commissioned the construction in 1863 of a massive balloon named Le Géant, standing 40 meters tall. Open to the public and charging admission, the balloon’s sensational exhibitions were intended to fund research into “heavier-than-air” flight, a field in which Nadar was a pioneer. The inaugural flight of Le Géant took place on October 4, 1863, at the Champ-de-Mars.