Lot 66
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Large collection of photographs, 1940s-60s
Auction: 02 October 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
gelatin silver prints, 106 in total, many with press agency ink-stamps and captions to versos (the captions in English or Arabic, on typed slips or typed or handwritten direct), agencies including Associated Press and Jordanian agencies, e.g. Sharikat Abna’ al-Sharq al-Awsat, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Directorate General of Press, Information and Publications, Studio Columba (Amman), Jordan Tanning Co. (these with caption slips mounted to rectos), and Jordan Cement Factories Co., depicting:
1) King Hussein and the Jordanian royal family: 6 large photographs, approx. 24 x 18cm, showing Hussein with Gamal Abdel Nasser, in an audience with Pope Pius XII at the Vatican, awarding a decoration to an Arab Legion corporal, at the official opening of a desert highway, at the engagement party of Prince Hassan, and a portrait; 14 mid-size photographs, approx. 20 x 15cm, showing Hussein at a banquet with Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, ruler of Bahrain, meeting Shukri al-Quwatli, first president of Syria, dancing with his future consort Dina Abdul-Hamid, inspecting soldiers, posing with his younger siblings, and similar, 2 photographs marked-up for publication with Chinese white; and 18 smaller photographs (2 of which conjoined) mainly 13.5 x 9.5cm or similar, a few smaller, showing Hussein visiting London, at Sandhurst, meeting Pius XII, meeting Nasser, etc., and King Abdullah in London, and similar;
2) Glubb Pasha, commander of the Arab Legion: 3 photographs, approx. 13.5 x 9.5cm, showing Glubb Pasha and King Abdullah, Glubb Pasha and King Hussein observing the Arab Legion’s ‘beating the retreat’, and Glubb Pasha returning to London Airport after his dismissal, and one smaller photograph of Glubb Pasha;
3) Jordanian industry and engineering projects: 12 full-plate photographs, approx. 30 x 22cm, 7 large photographs, 24 x 18.5cm, 16 mid-size, approx. 18 x 13cm, showing tobacco and cement production, phosphate mining, tanning and dyeing factories, canal-building, etc.;
4) 27 views of Jordanian scenery, townscapes, antiquities, industry and life, approx. 24.5 x 18.5cm (all these matt prints, possibly gelatin silver prints but perhaps another medium), 3 photographs of Arab soldiers (various dimensions), and 1 other