GROUP OF 17 PHOTOGRAPHS OF TURKISH ANTIQUITIES SENT TO THERON J. DAMON by a Turkish / Constantinople antiquities dealer, 1929

[THERON J. DAMON GROUP OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF TURKISH ANTIQUITIES, SOME WITH HIS NOTES, 1929] GROUP OF 17 PHOTOGRAPHS OF TURKISH ANTIQUITIES SENT TO THERON J. DAMON by a Turkish / Constantinople antiquities dealer, some with Damon notations in reply to the dealer and/or dealer's notations for Damon, in 1929 Damon opened a Near Eastern antiquities shop in New York City after years of diverse activities in Turkey and the surrounding region including teaching at Robert College in Constantinople (see Notes below), the photographs are varying perspectives from full views to details of icons, metalwork, friezes, paintings, and calligraphy, black-and-white on heavier, stiff photographic paper and "agra-lupex" photo paper [a brand of German photo paper of the period] as identified with the logo on the backs of some, ranging in size from 10" x 7-1/2" and 2 oblong photographs with folds about 7" high x 14" across (one with the fold split about three-quarters of its length), 3 of the larger photos have the stamp of the photography firm Sebah & Joaillier on the backs, Damon's replies in green ink include "Above this icon there seems to be another fine piece of frieze?" alongside the dealer's notes in pencil, "If certain feet can be found for the columns as I have marked on the photo [small + in green ink at spot on the photograph], the setting would be more complete", "I am keen on having all the friezes" [shown in the photo]…on the back of one is a New Year's greeting in French dated 31-XII-29 [a couple of months after the 1929 Stock Market Crash], signed "Lutfi", one sample dealer note "Icon byzantine XII c." with apparent pencil notes in Turkish on some which Damon would have been able to read; NOTES: THERON JOHNSON DAMON: 1883-1975, In 1911 [Damon] returned to the States [from Turkey], married his bride in Milton [MA], and then settled in Turkey teaching at Constantinople College, working with the Associated Press, and helping out at the American Embassy as courier to Berlin in those days of the First World War before this country and Germany, Austria, and Turkey split relations…Once discharged into civilian life, Damon returned to Turkey where he was in charge as executive secretary of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Levant. He left that job in 1926 and became an agent in the area for an American oil company and remained there for three years…As [Damon] noted in his fiftieth [Harvard] class report, 'I opened a shop in New York City for old Near Eastern art and craft work a few days before the depression. I did not close it, alas, until 1936.' For a time Damon ran the shop long distance from Turkey but later set up housekeeping in New York while continuing to travel a great deal." (American Antiquarian Society obituary by James E. Mooney); SEBAH & JOAILLIER: a leading Turkish photography firm active from 1888-1908 for photos of Turkey and Egypt for tourists, successor to the Turkish-born photographer Pascal Sebah (1823–1886); PROVENANCE: the estate of Theron J. Damon /// CONDITION: well-preserved, fold of one photo split as noted above, normal age-wear of narrow furling at edges of some. keywords: Near Eastern art, antiquities photography, art photos