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# Lichfield auctioneer sells postcard sent on world’s first official airmail flight
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/lichfield-auctioneer-sells-postcard-sent-on-worlds-first-official-airmail-flight/
- Published: 2023-08-01T06:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2023-07-27T11:37:03.000Z
- Description: A postcard sent on the world’s first official airmail flight has been sold by a Lichfield auctioneer.
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Fradley, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 19:01, News

A postcard sent on the world’s first official airmail flight has been sold by a Lichfield auctioneer.

Dating back to 1911, the item was part of an old family collection which had been largely forgotten about for many decades.

Uncovered during a valuation at The Lichfield Auction Centre in Fradley, the archive sold for £420 with Richard Winterton Auctioneers.

Featuring a panoramic view of Dijon, the card is addressed to an AE Sauballe Esq in Purulia, West Bengal – the sender apparently anticipating its future desirability as a collectable, writing on the back: “Please keep this for my collection.”

It was amongst approximately 6,000 items of mail flown the five miles from Allahabad to Naini on a Humber-Sommer biplane by French pilot Henri Pequet on 18th February 1911.

A few decades previously, mail had been carried by hot air balloons, but Pequet’s 13-minute journey proved the possibilities of aerial mail by plane and paved the way for the world’s first regular airmail service in the UK that September, tying in with the coronation of King George V.

Richard Winterton Auctioneers specialist, Phil Ives, said:

> “The postcard was part of an old family collection passed down through the generations and had been squirrelled away and largely forgotten about for four or even five decades.  
>  
> “The family knew of the collection’s existence but were unaware of the significance of this cover.”  
>  
> Phil Ives

Mr Ives will be offering free stamp valuations at The Lichfield Auction Centre from 10am to 2pm on 16th August. To book an appointment call 015432 251081 or email [office@richardwinterton.co.uk](mailto:office@richardwinterton.co.uk).