Fall Auction 2023 Active (#862785)

This interesting group was purchased from the estate of a WWII US Army Air Force veteran.  This is a genuine B29 panel, hand-signed by Paul Tibbets and the artist Ron Kaplan, an Ohio-based aviation artist, writer and photographer.  Ron Kaplan is the founder of Warbird Aviation Art, and he travels the world with famous aviators to preserve military history.  In this case, Kaplan produced these pieces, which Tibbets signed.  According to the reverse, there are probably 509 of these, of which this is the 10th.  Also included is a second signed piece, an aluminum reproduction of the aircraft plate, featuring some information on Tibbts below the "Enola Gay" specifications.  The reverse features an etched photo on aluminum of Tibbets (quite a famous photo) and bears Tibbets' signature as well.  This piece is housed in protective lucite.  The final piece which is included in this group is a medal bar with no provenance, but which is constructed of period ribbons and bar backing, that represents Tibbets' medal bar.  For reference, similar artwork to the B-29 piece offered here, sells for $1200 - $1500.  You get two signatures here, plus the ribbon bar.  Great display group.  Please note: the last two photos of Tibbets and Kaplan are for reference only and are not part of the group (though you could certainly download them and print them out for display).