Balloons! Balloons! A broadside advertising Charles Green's balloon ascents 1845
GREEN, Charles. (1785-1870). Balloons! Balloons! an advertising broadside.
Broadside advertising a night ascent by Charles Green in the Great Nassau Balloon, with fireworks and pyrotechnic display, together with a daytime ascent, from Cremorne Gardens, King’s Road, Chelsea.
London, printed by S. G. Fairbrother, 31 Bow Street, Covent Garden, 1845.
Single-sheet wood-engraved broadside, 255 × 115 mm. Two illustrative panels: the upper showing the Nassau Balloon car with passengers and flags, the lower depicting a night ascent with the illuminated balloon rising above a densely packed crowd. The text is advertising the ascents on Monday 25 August 1845 and Wednesday 27 August, with details of omnibuses from across London and fares.
Condition: very good or better. Light toning and faint creases to the corner edges; small marginal wear; no losses to the image or text. In remarkable condition considering the delicate and ephemeral nature of the paper stock used.
Charles Green (1785–1870) was the most prominent British aeronaut of the nineteenth century and the central figure in the transformation of ballooning from experimental science into popular spectacle. In 1821 he introduced the use of coal gas in place of hydrogen, greatly reducing cost and risk, and thereafter made several hundred ascents, including the celebrated long-distance flight from London to Nassau in 1836 which gave its name to the “Great Nassau Balloon” advertised here. Green became one of the pre-eminent professional balloonists of his age, combining serious meteorological and navigational observation with highly public publicised exhibitions, such as these two advertised.
By the mid-1840s Green was the star attraction at London’s pleasure gardens. Cremorne Gardens, newly opened in Chelsea in 1845 as a rival to Vauxhall, made balloon ascents one of its principal spectacles. Night ascents accompanied by fireworks, as announced on this bill, were among the most dramatic and hazardous entertainments of the period, drawing large crowds and extensive press coverage.
Illustrated advertising broadsides for balloon ascents are rare survivals, being produced for temporary display in the streets and at the gardens themselves. Examples relating to Green are held in major institutional collections, but individual variants such as this Cremorne Gardens handbill, with specific dates and printer’s imprint, are seldom encountered on the market.