Portfolio of photographs of Iraqi views and people.

£4,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A remarkably beautiful group of photographs from the Eldorado studio of Baghdad. Run by Ovaness Kouyoumdjian, Eldorado was among the most prominent Armenian-owned photographic studios in the Iraqi capital, prospering well into the 1950s. The present group of large silver-gelatin prints is a rare survival, as the studio mostly produced real photo postcards and smaller format prints. The photographs include: a potter presenting freshly-thrown earthenware jugs; mounted desert policemen; the Ctesiphon Arch (Taq Kasra); a worker gathering dates high up in a Basra palm; the golden domes and minarets of Al-Kadhimiya Mosque; two stunning images of Baghdad’s famous Souk al-Safafeer; men transporting goods in a kuphar (the crates somewhat surprisingly purporting to contain scotch whisky). Cf. Vartan Melkonian, An Historical Glimpse of the Armenians in Iraq , Basra, The Times Press, 1957, p.12.

• Binding: Hardcover

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