A RARE GROUP OF PERSIAN CARTES DE VISITE RELATING TO THE INSTALLATION OF IRAN'S FIRST TELEGRAPH LINE. Photographer Unknown, c.1860s

Comprising ten albumen prints mounted onto contemporary card supports, the sitters include Imam Qoli Mirza Imad Al-Dawla, grandson of Fath Ali Shah Qajar, governor of Kermanshah and Lurestan, who served as the first appointed Minister of Science under Shah Nasir al-Din Shah between 1860-1882; members of the Persian Qajar court; Aqa Khan, the Cashier of the Telegraph; Nusurulla Khan, the Signaller of the Telegraph; various Kermanshah governors (one of the most famous governors of this region was Mohammad Hossein Mirza Dowlatshahi, 1807-1821) and an unusual image of The Stage (located in Shiraz); each image annotated in a contemporary hand in manuscript ink in the lower margin or verso, each print approx 85 x 55cmm.