Just another day in the workshop

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“Okay, chaps, do what you’ve been told to do and just look at the camera!” Twelve men and boys pose for this great shot taken in 1939. Any idea where? We’ll tell you - it’s in Sarajevo before the city was bombed. Another picture from the same year and by the same photographer, Alija M. Akšamija, was seen here not too long ago when reader Michael Rose identified the car that Akšamija was seen in as W. O. Bentley's own c.1913 DFP. He was as surprised about that as we were: “No idea how he and/or his car might've gone to Yugoslavia as late as 1939. Especially as he'd spent 25 intervening years as a very well-known Bentley Boy by then.”

Akšamija may well have known the right people. The DFP is nowhere to be seen here but he does shows us a workshop where there appears to be lots of interesting stuff going on. There are seven cars parked in front of the premises plus one just around the back. Furthermore, we see four motorcycles, two of them with sidecars. Hammers and an anvil are ready for use, one of the chaps is working on a radiator and two are pumping up a tyre. Surely that man in the suit and hat must be the boss?

The original caption doesn’t mention any names, just “A group of mechanics with their assistants and a gentleman in suit and tie pose in front of a garage, presenting their skills, cars and motorcycles.” Let’s see if you are able to identify the vehicles as well as Michael Rose did. With your knowledge, somebody may even know more about the workshop itself...

(Words Jeroen Booij, Picture Graz University, Alija M. Akšamija collection)

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