E. M. Jelajian

E. M. Jelajian sold Cypriot antiquities to the British Museum over more than a decade and then exhibited ancient pottery at the 1925 Empire Exhibition at Wembley. Reeve describes him as an Armenian Cypriot and a longstanding employee of the British administration of Cyprus, with family ties to the United Kingdom². The Cyprus State Archives file she cites about his collection gives his initials as M. E., while the Wembley list prints E. M.; his forenames are not recorded in the sources².

Thomas Kiely calls him an antiquities dealer, formerly based in Famagusta and by then resident in London, who sold objects to the British Museum between 1911 and 1924¹. Reeve writes that he retired in 1919 and moved to London, taking some of his collection with him after negotiation with the Cyprus Museum².

At Wembley in 1925 he was one of 31 private exhibitors in the Cyprus pavilion, listed as "E.M. Jelajian - Ancient Pottery". Reeve judges that his pottery was for sale and was sold for his benefit, while the other objects in the pavilion came from the government, probably as Cyprus Museum duplicates². Kiely says much of the pottery was afterwards bought by Henry Crowther for the Leeds Museum¹. Reeve places the Leeds purchase, 103 pieces for £200 approved in June 1926, as an offer by the Colonial Commissioner for Cyprus from the government's exhibits, and finds no trace of sales by Jelajian². She suggests William Bevan, as a possible link to the Exhibition².