WORLD WAR I - YEMEN TO ADEN COVER WITH RARE IMAM'S RED TRIAN...

Hammer

£150

WORLD WAR I - YEMEN TO ADEN COVER WITH RARE IMAM'S RED TRIANGULAR INTAGLIO SEAL; c.1915 env. (edge wear and two vertical creases) sent from Yemen to Aden with the rare red triangular Imam's Headquarters seal (“From the Camp of Al Mansour 1331”; this date equates to 1912/13, but the mark was used in this form for several years) on both back and front; this is the cachet of Imam Yahya ibn Mohammed al Mansour who ruled Yemen 1904-1948. It is addressed to “Our devoted Colonel Jacob Esq.” which implies that the letter could well have been from the Imam himself, rather from than a high court official; the addressee was Lieut. Col. Harold Fenton Jacob (1866-1936), the First Assistant Resident in Aden between 1910 and 1917. After the outbreak of the First World War he also acted as Chief Political Officer to the Aden Field Force, so this cover was very likely sent in 1915/17 to the Aden F.F. Important Exhibition Item. [Similar covers sold in Cavendish's 2009 Parker auction, lots 129-134, realising from £1,000 to £2,400.] [Ex Tony Eastgate.] Cross Reference: YEMEN, ADEN, MILITARY - WWI