[YEMEN.] [ANONYMOUS.]

Three original photographs: the Sultan of Lahej, the Sultan with his family, the Sultan's palace.

Early photographs of Lahej

Original albumen photographs, mounted on sheets of card or paper (the images measuring 62 by 104mm, 227 by 188mm and 230 by 170mm). Slight fading to the image of the Sultan’s family, all images generally very good. Ms. titles in ink to mounts of the family and palace photographs. [No date, but, 1877.

£2,750.00

A set of photographs focusing on al-Fadl III ibn ’Ali al-’Abdali, who was the Sultan of Lahej for two periods; briefly in 1863 and for a longer spell starting in July 1874 and ending in April 1898.

A small carte-de-visite shows the Sultan sitting alone looking directly into the camera. A larger print captures him with his family, seated outside between two palms; all are in fine clothes and with swords at hip or to hand. The final image sets his palace against a blank sky, rising far above the other low-lying buildings and fences.

The photographs are among the earliest of Lahej and were almost certainly taken by the same unidentified photographer whose images illustrated the presentation issue of Frederick Hunter’s An Account of the British Settlement of Aden in Arabia (London, 1877). The group portrait is included as the fourteenth photograph (of fifteen) in that volume, titled ‘Group of the Reigning Family of the Lahej District’. Although the other two images do not feature, they clearly belong to the same series, all of which were probably commercially available as individual prints in Aden.

Though he does not name the photographer, Hunter does mention the existence of commercial studios in Aden at the time: ‘There are two depôts, both located at Steamer Point, where portraits are taken by photography; they are, however, but indifferently patronised. Views of the different places of interest in the Settlement and neighbourhood can be obtained, and as they have been taken by an amateur who thoroughly understood the art, they are worth the small sum charged for each copy. An excellent panoramic view of the camp was taken by this artist, and can be purchased for Rs.6 per copy.’ (p. 86). The person most likely to have been behind the lens is Charles Nedey, a photographer who was active in Aden from at least the 1870s, producing views and CDVs of the local people.

Stock No.
207134