A rare sketch by telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell that illustrates his passion for experimental high-speed boats is being sold online.
The sketch is a humourous piece for Bell’s great friend and protege Frederick Walker ‘Casey’ Baldwin.
Bell won the race to create the first working telephone in the 1870s, but had wide-ranging interests in science and cutting edge technology.
This included aviation and high-speed boats, particularly hydrofoils, which use wing-like structures to raise boats in the water to allow them to go faster.
Bell and Baldwin with a prototype that looks very like the boat Bell sketched for his great friend.
Baldwin was a passionate aviator and boatsman who worked with Bell on designs for air and water craft.
Paul Fraser Collectibles are selling a sketch drawn by Bell and sent to Baldwin in 1921.
The cartoon-strip-style series of drawings show Baldwin racing a hydrofoil to rescue a drowning man, only to wind up in the water himself.
It is titled: “Ye great new invention of F.W.B”
Bell has signed it H.A.L, an anagramtic pseudonym he often used: H A Largelamb.
Paul Fraser Collectibles chairman Paul Fraser said: “This sketch clearly meant a lot to Bell and has historical significance.
“Just nine months after drawing this fond gift for his friend, Bell passed away. His last words to his family were “stand by Casey”. Baldwin went on to work on Bell’s legacy as manager of Graham Bell Laboratories.
“A quick sketch became a poignant memento for Baldwin, who has inscribed it on the back, giving first-class confirmation of its authenticity.
“It’s unlike any other Bell item I’ve seen on the market.”
From the hand of Alexander Graham Bell. Image courtesy Paul Fraser Collectibles.
Baldwin and Bell met over their enthusiasm for high-speed and high-altitude innovation.
Together they founded the Aerial Experiment Association and designed air and water craft including the HD-4 hydrofoil in which Baldwin secured a world water speed record in 1919, travelling at 71-miles-per-hour. Baldwin is a substantial figure in his own right, and memorialised in an annual award given to Canadian aerospace pioneers.
Bell is one of the few industrial and tech pioneers to have widespread name recognition. Items related to him, and his inventions, are highly prized.
Simple autographed letters commonly make £5,000, and in 2012, a highly significant piece of corespondence, including technical diagrams, auctioned for just short of $93,000 in the US.
Paul Fraser is confident this sketch will find a new home.
He said: “It’s a piece I’ve personally enjoyed owning. It’s full of history humour and personality and hand-drawn by one of the greatest inventors who ever lived.”
