This week in Philly etsy…
OK, Justin Arawjo’s not from Philly, he’s from Harrisburg. But we saw his Communitea booth at a craft fair at the Piazza a few weeks ago and liked it so much that we grabbed a business card AND a reasonably priced T-shirt.
What’s going on here?
The coolest thing about this shirt is that it depicts an actual historical event! On May 3, 1808 Monsieur de Grandpre and Monsieur de Pique ascended over Paris in hot air balloons to duel for the affection of a famous dancer. One source clains they chose to duel in balloons because they believed they had “elevated minds”. In any case, after ascending to about 2000 feet, they fired at each other from a distance of 80 yards. De Pique took the first shot and missed. De Grandpre, however, scored a direct hit on his opponent’s balloon and De Pique was tipped out of his basket, falling to the rooftops below. I have yet to find any information regarding how this impressed the dancer they were fighting over.
Balloon duels? Clearly I was meant for another era. Here’s a detail if you’re squinting: