
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
![ARABIA - ANTIQUITIES MUNCHERJEE (KAIKY, Collector) "A Marvellous Collection of Rare, Authentic, Genuine, Ancient, Humarites & Sabeans Antiques of Ancient Southern Arabia... 2400 Years Old. In the Possession of Kaiky Muncherjee, Steamer Point, Aden. Open to Wholesale Sale" [printed title label on upper cover], [Bombay, 1925] image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2015-08%2F17%2F9209995-1-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![ARABIA - ANTIQUITIES MUNCHERJEE (KAIKY, Collector) "A Marvellous Collection of Rare, Authentic, Genuine, Ancient, Humarites & Sabeans Antiques of Ancient Southern Arabia... 2400 Years Old. In the Possession of Kaiky Muncherjee, Steamer Point, Aden. Open to Wholesale Sale" [printed title label on upper cover], [Bombay, 1925] image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2015-08%2F17%2F9209995-1-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
ARABIA - ANTIQUITIES MUNCHERJEE (KAIKY, Collector) "A Marvellous Collection of Rare, Authentic, Genuine, Ancient, Humarites & Sabeans Antiques of Ancient Southern Arabia... 2400 Years Old. In the Possession of Kaiky Muncherjee, Steamer Point, Aden. Open to Wholesale Sale" [printed title label on upper cover], [Bombay, 1925]
Sold for £2,500 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot

ARABIA - ANTIQUITIES
Footnotes
A "trade catalogue" of the vast collection of southern Arabian antiquities compiled by the Kaiky Muncherjee, a Parsi Indian trader resident in Aden in the early twentieth century. The catalogue was seemingly issued to entice a sale en bloc ("wholesale sale, communication solicited") to an American institution, Muncherjee stating that "the major portion of my collection awaits reciphering [sic] and when so treated, will, of course, fathom the heart of the past which is of the greatest importance". As such, whilst listing at length both Arab and foreign scholars who vouch for the authenticity of the collection, the key selling point is a series of photographs showing the collection, tightly packed, on wooden shelves, always with labels emphasising "2400 years old". The collection - held in Aden (the brochure printed for Muncherjee in Bombay) - was not sold at this time. The British archaeologist Sir Lawrence Kirwan examined the collection in 1939, before it was eventually purchased by the government of Aden shortly after Muncherjee's death in 1955.

![ARCHITECTURE - ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL Manuscript planning brief for work under the supervision of Inigo Jones, [c.1631]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F16%252F25762965-1-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-116-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)

![ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-32-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)

![MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F09%252F25680656-99-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
