In the early 1930s, Alberto Santos Dumont went to southwest France and informed his friend Paul Tissandier of his new address.
Alberto Santos Dumont's business card for Paul Tissandier.
In French.
7.6 cm x 5.8 cm.
Biarritz, France, no date information.
Excellent condition of conservation.
Between 1929 and 1931, Alberto Santos Dumont (1873 - 1932) returned to France for the last time and was admitted to sanatoriums in southwestern France, one of which was located in Orthez and the other in Biarritz. After a year, he returned to Brazil for good, where he died the following year.
It was during this period that Santos Dumont, who was quite weak, met Paul Tissandier (1881 - 1945), the son of the Frenchman Gaston Tissandier, a famous engine inventor. Trained as a pilot by the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, Paul also piloted dirigible balloons, airboats, cars, and machines with which he set many speed records. A great friendship was born between the two men.
This business card has signs of use; we can easily imagine Alberto Santos Dumont handing it to his friend Paul Tissandier when he moved to Biarritz, a period during which they would meet and work together several times. There are few documents and little information about Santos Dumont's last moments in France.
