Saint Clement - Late 18th Century - Balloon Model, Circa 1785

Saint Clément - End of the 18th century
The craze for aircraft in 1783

A bit of history: The brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, inventors of the first hot-air balloon, made their eternal fame in Annonay on June 4, 1783. A few weeks later, on August 27, in Paris on the current Champ de Mars, a hydrogen balloon, the work of the physicist Alexandre Charles and the Robert brothers, continued the conquest of the air. Eleven years separate these facts from the first military use of a captive hydrogen balloon, held to the ground by a cable, during the siege of Maubeuge, on June 2, 1794. A few weeks earlier, the Convention, by the Act of 13 Germinal of Year II (April 2, 1794), had decided to create the first company of balloonists. During this decade, the balloon aroused a real craze, drawing in its wake the interest of scholars, men of letters, aristocrats and ecclesiastics, but also of artisans, merchants, artists and ordinary people of the cities and the countryside. Everyday objects were directly inspired by aerostats. The Saint Clément factory sacrificed to this "ballomania" or "volomania", to use the expressions of the time. This fashion was quickly overshadowed by the political upheavals due to the Revolution. Hence the small number of examples still in good condition on the art market today.
This model decorated with butterflies on the rim of the plate is in perfect condition. It sounds perfect.