Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

A group of medals awarded to the pioneer aviator Paul Tissandier, the second French pilot-pupil of the renowned Wilbur Wright:

Société Météorologique de France, a silver award medal by H. Dubois and after J.-B. Daniel-Dupuis, named (À M. Paul Tissandier, Observations en Ballon, 1905), 57mm;
Aéro-Club de Belgique, a silver award medal by M.-A.-L. Coudray for A. Rivet, named (Concours du 15 Septbre. 1907, à Mr P. Tissandier), 45mm;
Aero-Club d’Italia, a bronze award medal by S. Johnson, named (F.A.I., Conferenza di Roma, 1926, Paul Tissandier), 44mm [3]. Second with edge knock, otherwise all very fine £200-£400

Paul Tissandier (1881-1945), son of the French chemist, meteorologist and aviator Gaston Tissandier (1843-99) who, in a flight undertaken in April 1875 with two colleagues, ascended unwittingly to the then unheard of altitude of 28,000 feet (8,600 metres) – his colleagues died from the effects of breathing thin air but Gaston survived. Paul was first taken aloft by his father, subsequently becoming a balloon pilot and then qualifying to fly dirigibles in January 1904. In 1908 the entrepreneurs Lazare Weiller (1858-1928) and Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe (1846-1919) founded the Compagnie Générale de Navigation Aérienne and engaged Wilbur and Orville Wright to come to France with the twofold aim of completing a flight from French soil with a passenger, and to train three pilots, the Count de Lambert, Paul Tissandier and Lucas Gérardville, who would become the first three French aviators. The first aim was completed several times, taking off from the racecourse at Hunaudières, the first passenger in August 1908 being the pioneer motor manufacturer Léon Bollée (1870-1913), who let the Wright brothers use his factory in nearby Le Mans as a base. The climate at Le Mans, particularly the wind, was not deemed ideal for the establishment of a flying school, so Tissandier and a colleague suggested the south-west province of Béarn. The Wright brothers’ engineer, Hart Berg, in company with Tissandier, visited the area and met with the mayor of Pau, Alfred de Lassence (1852-1933), who gave his enthusiastic blessing to the establishment of what became the world’s first flying school, which opened in December 1908. After the Wright brothers returned to the USA at the end of March 1909 the school was run by Tissandier