Broussa and Emir Sultan, Pair of Antique Views of Brusa, circa 1850

About this sheet

This is an original set of two antique steel engravings from the second volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850, sold together as a set and not available singly. The first sheet shows the city of Brusa spread along the lower slope of the Mysian Olympus, minarets and cypresses rising out of the dense roofscape, ruined walls and broken arches in the foreground and the snow line of the mountain closing the distance. The second sheet shows the precinct of the Emir Sultan mosque at Brusa, a timber gallery and a domed tomb among tall cypresses, a laden horse and figures in local dress on the road below and the hills of Asia Minor rising beyond the trees.

They are two original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. They come from the second volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, drawn from nature by Thomas Allom with descriptions by the Reverend Robert Walsh and published in London by Peter Jackson at the Caxton Press about 1850. Every sheet is a steel engraving of the same size, printed without color as issued, with the draftsman lettered at the lower left, the engraver at the lower right and the publisher's imprint beneath the title.

Brusa was the first Ottoman capital and held the tombs of the early sultans, so a view of it carries more weight than its size suggests. Mount Olympus of Mysia, the Uludag of today, is the mountain behind, and it is the dominant feature of every description of the city. Emir Sultan was the Bukharan mystic who married a daughter of Bayezid the First and whose shrine remains one of the most visited in Bursa. The mosque Allom drew was rebuilt after earthquake damage, which makes this plate a record of a building that no longer looks like this. A matched group hung together reads as one piece of furniture on a wall rather than as several small pictures, and because the sheets are the same size they frame identically and line up without compromise. Framed alike in plain dark moldings with equal mounts they suit a hall, a stair, a study or a dining room.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Light foxing in the margins of both sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the two sheets.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.