Beschreibung:

Irregularly shaped, unbleached muslin swatch, approximately 12 x 10 inches. Together with a card with typed provenance note: "This is a piece of the original fabric covering the wings of the Kitty Hawk with which Orville Wright made the first successful flight in history on December 17, 1903. I got it from the estate of Orville Wright." Signed in ink "Lester D. Gardner" at lower right. Provenance: The Otto Kallir Collection of Aviation History, Sotheby's June 14, 1993. Lester Gardner was the Editor in Chief of Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering from 1916 to 1921, a founder of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, and a friend of Orville Wright. He worked with Wright to arrange for the first public display of the original flyer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916. The above fabric appears to be the largest piece ever offered at auction, many times the size of swatches generally offered.