David Lay Auctions
Lot 162
Lilian BLAND (1878-1971) (Aviator)Hydrangeas Oil on board Signed Artist's label to verso31.5 x 44cmProvenance:Gifted to the vendor's father who was a close friend of Bland.Lilian Bland (1878-1971)In 1910, when Amelia Erhart was still only twelve years old, the pioneering Anglo-Irish aviator, photographer, journalist, jockey and motor enthusiast Lilian Bland made the first flight in her bi-plane the 'Mayfly,' aptly and ironically named by Bland because "It may fly, it may not..." This was all the more remarkable because Bland had also designed and built the plane herself, the first woman in the world to do so. Strangely, she is barely mentioned in the annals of aviation history and she remains virtually unknown to the wider public.Born in Kent in 1878, between 1900 and 1906 (after the death of her mother) Bland moved with her father to the family home in Carnmoney in Northern Ireland to live with her aunt. Bland scandalised her neighbours, she smoked, wore trousers, was an excellent and knowledgable horsewoman, hunted hare and fox, fished, practiced jujitsu, was a crack shot and never had any interest in the Edwardian pursuits of a society lady—they had empty lives full of empty talk, she once said. She was the first woman to be granted a jockey's licence in Ireland and applied repeatedly to ride in the Grand National, but was refused on account of her sex. It is interesting to note that it was 1977 before women were finally allowed to compete in the National and 2021 before there was a female winner, which gives a sense of just how far ahead of her time Bland was.Already a successful sports journalist and press photographer for various London newspapers, her enthusiasm for flight was inspired by Blériot's achievements and her studies of birds, and in 1909 she set to work designing and building her own plane. A page dedicated to Bland at the Women’s Museum of Ireland describes the meticulous process by which she worked on building the Mayfly. She initially created it as a glider, testing its weight capacity and drawing on her knowledge of avian biology to design the wings. Eventually, by 1910 the Mayfly was capable of flying to a height of 30 feet and traveling for a quarter of a mile. Her father was considerably alarmed by these antics and persuaded her to give up flying in return for a motor car. It was a successful bribe. Delighted by her new Model T Ford, bought in Dublin, Bland convinced the delivery driver to let her drive it home and of course she was a natural. Constantly breaking boundaries, she went on to set up Belfast’s first Ford dealership. She never returned to flying, but next married her cousin Charles Loftus Bland in 1911, settling in Canada where they hacked a home out of the wilderness. They had two children, Patricia and Jackie. Tragically, Patricia died an agonising death from a tetanus infection when just 16. Jackie, a commercial fisherman, drowned in a boating accident off Vancouver Island in 1962. The Bland's marriage did not survive the grief of Patricia's death and Lilian returned to England in 1935, living first in Kent then retiring to Sennen in Cornwall in 1955, where by her own account she devoted the rest of her life to gambling, painting and gardening. In a 1966 interview with Penzance reporter Frank Ruhrmund, she described her solitary life looking out to sea from her home in Maria's Lane in Sennen: "I love it. I keep busy, I have my plants, I paint and I gamble. Very occasionally I watch television at a neighbour’s house, but only the horse racing – I back five horses a day, with success, I may add and, great fun!”She died in 1971 aged 92, and is buried in Sennen. Condition report: There are areas of this painting where there has been pronounced paint shrinkage. We have tried to illustrate this with detailed images.
