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Great War biplane place-card holders, 1920

Price Code: SOLD

Reference: 6648

A highly unusual set of six very heavy cast menu or place-card holders in the form of stylized Great War biplanes. The wings with engraved roundels, spinning propellers and undercarriage wheels, and the tail planes with a slot to hold the place-cards. English, circa 1920s.

Wingspan: 4 inches (10 cm)

The biplane designs of the Wright brothers between 1903 and 1909 started the era of powered flight. This stacked, two-winged design predominated in military and commercial aviation from World War I through to the early 1930s. But the biplane’s legendary manoeuverability however could not complete with what was to follow, the much faster monoplane. After World War II, biplanes were only used for special purposes such as crop dusting and aerobatic flying, although the nostalgia for the design has endured as these place-card holders demonstrate.







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