Lot 65
Yemen
Large collection of photographs, 1950s-60s
Auction: 02 October 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
60 large-format gelatin silver prints, 17.5 x 23.5cm or the reverse, all with typescript caption slips in Arabic mounted to versos, several captions also including series-titles (e.g. ‘Judges of Yemen’, ‘The king, crown prince and Yemeni personalities’), many with additional manuscript captions in Spanish. Subjects comprise:
1) Muhammad al-Badr (1926-1996), last king and imam of Yemen (r.1962), 5 portraits as crown prince of Yemen, including one as foreign minister (seated at his desk), one with his uncle Sayf al-Islam 'Ali, minister of science, 2 during a horseback procession into Sana'a (2 photographs), and one with his father Imam Ahmad (this an enlarged photograph of an earlier photograph).
2) Yemeni notables (9 in total): Judge ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Siyaghi, minister of finance; Judge Ahmad al-Hafrani, ‘a man of letters of great insight, and one of the greatest reciters of poetry and history’; Muhammad al-Shami, minister of state and commander of the Sana’a brigade of the Yemeni army; Hasan Ibrahim, minister of state and deputy foreign minister; Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Shami, director of broadcasting and publications; Judge ‘Abdullah al-Shawkani, vice-president of the sharia council; Muhyi bin Muhammad al-Mutawakkil, president of the court of appeal, with assistants; Muhammad Abdullah al-Ghimizah, commander of the Yemeni defence force; commander of the royal guard.
3) Daily life, professions and dress (25 in total), including: soldiers (posed portraits and soldiers on the march); children in Ta'iz and Sana'a; teachers; tribal costume; a Yemeni ‘mafraj’ (club or lounge); a Yemeni qaylula (siesta); tennis in Sana'a; roadworks; agriculture (including a coffee plantation); a student protest in support of Egypt; etc.
4) Buildings and places (21 in total), including: hospitals (Sana'a and Ta'iz); government ministries; mosques (Janad, Sana'a); palaces (Ta'iz, ‘Dar al-Wusul’); Ta'iz airstrip; Sana'a general library; Sana'a cityscape (2 views); etc.
Together with 23 further photographs: 6 of Muhammad al-Badr, 9 x 14cm to 18 x 36cm, depicting al-Badr addressing an open-air press conference on his arrival in Moscow (2 versions, including an original large-format version on two conjoined sheets, and a reduced version with typescript caption in Russian on verso), attending 2 diplomatic meetings possibly in the USSR (one attendee resembling Nikita Khrushchev), and meeting Gamal Abdel Nasser, with an informal portrait (Associated Press ink-stamp and caption verso); 5 of Ahmad bin Yahya (1891-1962), King and Imam of Yemen, 4 of which approx. 10 x 14.5cm, 3 of these with manuscript Arabic captions on verso, one depicting Ahmad and Gamal Abdel Nasser with ink-stamp and caption of Oscar Kersenbaum (Argentina) verso, and a larger photograph, 20.5 x 15cm, showing Ahmad seated with Muhammad al-Badr at a victory parade (Associated Press ink-stamp and caption); and 12 similar including other Yemeni notables (various dimensions) (83)
Footnote
An extensive visual record of the people and places of Yemen during the final years of the short-lived Mutawakkilite kingdom, the majority apparently the work of a single studio based in the Arabic-speaking world, and perhaps intended as an official record of Yemeni life. The Mutawakkilite regime was established after the end of Ottoman power in 1918 and lasted until 1962, when Muhammad al-Badr was deposed in a republican coup a week after succeeding his father Ahmad bin Yahya as king and imam, leading to an eight-year civil war which ended in victory for the republican side. A full list of photographs in this lot is available on request.