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WWI French Altimeter Salvaged From James Norman Hall's French Nieuport 28 Fighter With Provenance.. ...
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Sold on Jun 10, 2024 for:
$1,875.00
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Description
WWI French Altimeter Salvaged From James Norman Hall's French Nieuport 28 Fighter With Provenance.James Norman Hall (1887-1951) was prolific American writer and most certainly an avid adventurer. He has the distinction of having served three Western allies in WWI. At the outbreak of the war he joined the British army and served as a machine gunner during the Battle of Loos. In 1916 he enlisted in the French Flying Corps, serving in the famed Lafayette Escadrille where he earned the Croix de Guerre with five palms and the Médaille Militaire. In 1917 he joined the American Army Air Service where he met fellow pilot and later co-writer Charles Nordhoff (Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, Pitcairn's Island and The Bounty Trilogy). Hall was shot down on May 7, 1918 and spent the remainder of the war in German captivity.
The altimeter was manufactured by Naudet & Cie, Paris. The body of the instrument is constructed of brass, 4 ¼-inches in diameter, covered with a protective russet brown leather covering. A copy of a one-page typed letter dated December 26, 1980, from Stanley Harzfeld of Santa Barbara, California, reads in part: "I am offering to you an aviation item of great significance. It is an altimeter dating from World War I and it was salvaged from an airplane that was wrecked while in combat. The pilot was James Norman Hall. He gave the altimeter to his friend Charles Nordhoff. And Nordhoff gave the instrument to me many years ago...Hall finally took up residence in Tahiti and he lived there until his death. Nordhoff, after a residence in Tahiti, moved back to the USA and lived in Santa Barbara until his death. I was a friend of Nordhoff's and he gave the altimeter to me." The altimeter is accompanied by a 5 ½ x 8 ¼-inch sheet with a full signature, in ink "James Norman Hall" and a black-and-white 4 ¼ x 6 1/4-inch Paramount Studios publicity photo inscribed on the negative "Most Sincerely / James Hall." An excellent and appropriate item to represent an icon of WWI aviation.
Condition: Mechanism untested but appears to function properly; the leather covering midly scuffed, otherwise in excellent condition.
Auction Info
2024 June 10 Arms & Armor, Civil War & Militaria Signature® Auction #6291 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
June, 2024
10th
Monday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 1
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 408
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
25% on the first $1,000,000 (minimum $49), plus 20% of any amount between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000, plus 15% of any amount over $5,000,000 per lot.
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