A London delftware ballooning plate c.1785, Lambeth or Vauxhall, painted in blue with two figures seated in a gondola-shaped basket beneath a hot air balloon flying above a village landscape, the rim with a trellis border, broken in half and restuck, 23.5cm. Provenance: acquired from Sotheby's, 26th January 1965, lot 34 (part). The ballooning scene depicted on this plate is that of Dr John Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais on 7th January 1785.