Somaliland/Djibouti
Collection of 6 patriotic postcards showing Somali women. Most are used by a soldier fighting on the Southern Front April 18-23, 1936. He writes V.V. Gratziani and V.V. Badoglio (the two supreme Italian commanders on the Southern and Northern fronts respectively) in the upper left and lower right corners on some of the postcards. Content on back. B
Price: $150.00
Two photos of the grave of the Duca Abruzzi. (Note: Prince Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco of Savoy-Aosta (1873 - 1933 ), Duke of the Abruzzi, was an Italian nobleman, mountaineer and explorer of the royal House of Savoy. He was an admiral in World War 1. The Duke assisted Mussolini with the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928. He traveled to Addis Ababa with gifts, one of which was a Fiat 3000 tank, which ended up playing a role in crushing the abortive coup d'état of 1928. In the later years of his life, the Duke married a young Somali woman named Faduma Ali. He died on 18 March 1933, at Jowhar some ninety kilometres north of Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland. In 1920, he had founded here the "Village of the Duke of Abruzzi" (Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi or Villabruzzi). It was an agricultural settlement experimenting new cultivation techniques. By 1926, the colony comprised 16 villages, with 3,000 Somali and 200 Italian inhabitants, Italian Somalians. M
Price: $80.00
Collection of 90 postcards on native life in Somalia, issued during or before the fascist period. Shows markets, fantasia, agriculture, transporting goods, drawing water, street life, ballad singer, building a canal, family life, pottery making, cooking, school, recreation, playing music, weaving,etc. A good mix. B
Price: $1800.00
Rare photos of the visit of the Minister of Colonies to Mogadishu on November 1, 1936, on the eve of Grazianis first offensive along the southern front. The purpose of the visit was, among other things, to open a Military Hospital in view of upcoming hostilities. A number of high ranking military figures, Governor of Somaliland, etc. One of the photos is stamped RISERVATO, or CONFIDENTIAL. 2 photos, well described on back. M
Price: $100.00
Collection of 4 photographs on the November 18, 1906 visit of the Prince of Udine to Mogadishu. By way of background, Italy gained control of the ports of the Benadir coastal area with the concession of a small strip of land on the coast from the Sultan of Zanzibar, and over the following decades, Italian settlement was encouraged. In 1905, Italy assumed the responsibility of creating a colony in southern Somalia, after several failed attempts, following revelations that the Benadir Company had tolerated or collaborated in the perpetuation of the slave trade. On April 5, 1908 the Italian Parliament enacted a basic law to unite all of the parts of southern Somalia into an area called "Somalia Italiana". The visit by the Prince of Udine was no doubt part of a fact finding mission in preparation for the unification of Italian Somaliland. Each photo well described and dated on back. M
Price: $200.00
