Saudi Arabia—Fred Richards | Outside Mecca Gate, Jeddah, 5th April 1930

Saudi Arabia—Fred Richards

Outside Mecca Gate, Jeddah, 5th April 1930

Etching (310 x 160mm.), pencil dedication by Richards, "To my friends Mr and Mrs Laurence Grafftey-Smith", with small sketch of the pyramids, signed and dated, mounted, framed and glazed, some light ageing

WEDDING GIFT FROM THE ARTIST TO SIR LAURENCE GRAFFTEY-SMITH.

Attractive etching showing the old Mecca Gates, or Bab Makkah, at Jeddah, surrounded by market awnings and local merchants. Pilgrims would pass beneath this as they travelled the road to Islam's holy city.

Fred Richards (1878-1932) was a Welsh artist who travelled to Persia and Egypt in the late 1920s, ultimately producing A Persian Journey (1932), which contained almost fifty illustrations of street scenes, vistas, and buildings in the Middle East.

Sir Laurence Barton Grafftey-Smith (1892-1989) was a member of the Levant Consular Service for a number of years (serving in Jeddah, Cairo, Alexandria and Constantinople) and the author of Bright Levant (1970). He was a friend of Richards, and this etching is warmly dedicated to him as a wedding gift. Sir Laurence married Vivien Alderson, granddaughter of Sir George Alderson, in April 1930 at Alexandria.