THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA)
A PURPLE SILK AND COPPER AGAL (HEAD CIRCLET USED TO SECURE A KEFFIYEH OR HEAD COVERING)

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Property from the Collection of David Gainsborough Roberts

THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE - LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1888-1935)A PURPLE SILK AND COPPER AGAL (HEAD CIRCLET USED TO SECURE A KEFFIYEH OR HEAD COVERING)

EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Details

THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE - LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1888-1935)
A PURPLE SILK AND COPPER AGAL (HEAD CIRCLET USED TO SECURE A KEFFIYEH OR HEAD COVERING)
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
29 in. (74 cm.) in length

Provenance

T. E. Lawrence.
Given to Mrs. Clare Sydney-Smith.
Thence by descent to her daughter, Maureen Hews.
Given as a gift to Lionel Dakers in 1986.
Christie's, London, 15 November 2006, lot 217.

Exhibited

National Portrait Gallery, London, T.E. Lawrence Centenary Exhibition, 1988, no. 114.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Lot Essay

This agal was given to by Lawrence to his friend, Clare Sydney-Smith, wife of his commanding officer at RAF Cattewater, Plymouth Sound and author of a memoir of Lawrence. In March 1929, Lawrence was posted to RAF Cattewater (later renamed RAF Mount Batten, at his instigation), where his commanding officer was Wing Commander Sydney Smith, whom Lawrence had first met at the Paris Peace Conference and who had later organised the covert disembarkation of Lawrence from the Rajputana, upon his return from India. Lawrence became firm friends with his commanding officer and his family, particularly Mrs Clare Sydney Smith, and he described this period at Cattewater as 'The Golden Reign' -- a phrase Clare Sydney Smith later used as the title of her memoir of Lawrence.

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