Wilbur Wright
Paris, France, January 9, 1909
Wilbur Wright Rare ALS Re: Bronze Trophy for the Wright Brothers
ALS

WILBUR WRIGHT, Autograph Letter Signed, to Louis Corwin, January 9, 1909, Paris, France. 1 p., 5.5" x 8.5". On Hotel Meyerbeer stationery. General toning; very good.

In this brief but fantastic letter, Wilbur Wright explains that his schedule is too busy to come to Clamart, a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, for sittings. The recipient, sculptor Louis-Albert Carvin, wrote to Wilbur Wright to arrange for sittings for an upcoming sculpture he was creating to be presented to the Wright brothers. He is very rare in any form and according to auction records the last ALS to sell was in 2016! Wilbur letters have fetched upwards of $40,000 in the past.

Carvin sculpted ?La Muse de l?Aviation,? a trophy presented to Wilbur and Orville Wright on May 1, 1909, when they were admitted into the A?ro-Club de la Sarthe at Le Mans, France. The bronze sculpture features a winged muse, patterned after Katherine Wright, the sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright, on a rock ledge with the two men, pointed downward to an eagle in flight. The sculpture was displayed in the Wrights? home in Dayton, Ohio, for decades and is now a part of the collections of the Dayton Art Institute.

Transcript
Paris, le 9 Jan 1909
Dear Sir,
I have received your note and in reply would say that my present stay in Paris is so brief, and my time so fully occupied as to make it quite impossible to come to Clamart for the sittings you request.
With very much regret I beg to remain
Yours very truly
Wilbur Wright

M. Louis Carvin
1 rue de Livres
Clamart / Seine

Historical Background
Wilbur Wright sailed to Europe in the summer of 1908 to demonstrate the advances that he and his brother Orville Wright had made in powered flight. Facing the skepticism of the French aeronautical community, Wilbur Wright offered his first public demonstration on August 8, 1908, in Le Mans, France. Although the flight lasted less than two minutes, his ability to make banking turns and fly in a circle stunned pioneer French aviators and the public, who came by the thousands to see his demonstrations. Wright became an overnight celebrity. Former critics like French aviation promoter Ernest Archdeacon backtracked and apologized: ?For a long time, the Wright brothers had been accused in Europe of bluff.... They are today hallowed in France, and I feel an intense pleasure...to make amends.? Wright spent the autumn giving rides to an array of passengers.

While Wilbur Wright was demonstrating their aircraft to skeptical French aviators, Orville Wright was demonstrating a nearly identical flyer to the United States Army at Fort Myer, Virginia. A crash there on September 17 killed an Army observer who was a passenger and sent Orville Wright to the hospital with several broken bones.

In January 1909, the Wright brothers? agent in France located a new flying field in Pau, France, which had the advantage of a warmer climate. Orville Wright and their sister Katharine joined Wilbur after narrowly escaping injury when their train collided with another in southwestern France. The following month, King Alphonso of Spain visited a demonstration, and in March, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom visited with the Wright brothers. In April, they met King Victor Emanuel in Rome to discuss Italian interest in their machine.

Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) was born in Millville, Indiana, four years before his brother Orville. Although he finished high school, his family moved from Richmond, Indiana, to Dayton, Ohio, before he could receive his diploma. An injury in an ice-skating game cost him his front teeth, and he became more withdrawn and did not go to Yale University as planned. He and his brother Orville designed and built a printing press and started their own weekly newspaper. After they converted it to a daily in 1890, it lasted only four months. In 1892, they opened a bicycle sales and repair shop and by 1896 began manufacturing their own brand of bicycle. They started aeronautical research and experimentation in 1899 and discovered wing-warping as a means of turning an airplane. In 1900, they first went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to experiment with gliders, achieving powered flight in December 1903. They continued their experiments at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio, for the next several years. By 1908, they had contracts from the U.S. Army and a French company to build aircraft. In 1909, they formed the Wright Company. Wilbur died in 1912 of typhoid fever.

Louis-Albert Carvin (1875-1951) was born in Paris and studied art under Georges Gardet and Emmanuel Fremiet. He became a sculptor and was specifically known as an animalier for his realistic portrayal of animals. Carvin was a member of the Soci?t? des Artistes Fran?ais, and he exhibited at the Salon des Artists Francais from 1894 to 1933. In addition to creating ?La Muse de l?Aviation,? Carvin also produced bronze busts of both Wilbur and Orville Wright. Carvin died in Paris.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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5.5 x 8.5 in. (14 x 21.6 cm.)