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  • James Morley December 10, 2016 17:24

    I have to say my first instinct was that it said Paris!

  • Richard Sullivan HonFRPS October 28, 2016 18:47

    That makes sense as I believe it is Binjamin, the Arabic version of Benjamin, so we are likely looking for a middle eastern photographer. That may narrow the search down some. There is also a book written by a holocaust survivor name Binjamin as well.

    My database is mostly 19th and early 20th centuries.

    A check of a library that has a collection of phone books, especially London ones, and look for a photographer named Binjamin. Being Binjamin would narrow down the possibilities.

    Aha! I just noticed he worked in PARIS! It Binjamin / Paris. Another clue.

    --Dick

  • Ali Wahab October 28, 2016 16:43

    2768208912?profile=originalThanks Dick, I should have mentioned the date of the photograph is early 1930s, it is a portrait of King Faisal I of Iraq, the king died in 1933.

    The king was in London in early summer 1933 and went to Bern where he died in August 1933, photograph almost certainly from 1932-33. So there is a chance photograph could be taken in Switzerland, or Paris in his way.

    Regards,

    Ali

  • Richard Sullivan HonFRPS October 28, 2016 15:59

    It looks like "Parry" to me. I've found a ton of hits on Silvester, John, and Viscount Thomas, but no Benjamin. There is a "Barry" but it definitely looks like a "P" and not a "B."

    What is the image of? It could be that it is not a first and last name. The ending swoop on the Benjamin is something one would do at the end of a name not it the middle. Could it be Benjamin and Paris, a description, though that definitely looks like a "y" on the ending of the second word.

    I found two last name "Binjamin's" in mid 19th century New York Directories, Doggetts  and Gouldings so there is a Binjamin last name, that may be a clue. If so, he or she does not dot their "i's" and that makes the second word easier to interpret as "Paris." 

    I've checked for any Pany, Pary, Paiy. Is that a "J" and not an "F"? No hits on binf*

    Whomever it is needs a handwriting class, rather poor for a Victorian hand which leads me to think immigrant and thus Binjamin last name.

    Any more hints.

    --Dick Sullivan

     

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