About this sheet
This is a set of three original antique steel engravings, sold together as one lot, from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. The sheets are, in order: Constantinople from the Heights above Eyoub; Constantinople from Cassim Pacha; Scutari and the Maiden Tower on the Bosphorus. A wide panorama of Constantinople from the hills above Eyoub, the Golden Horn curving away beneath with caiques crossing it, the domes and minarets of the imperial mosques ranged along the skyline of the old city and two figures seated on the grass in the foreground. The old city seen across the Golden Horn from Cassim Pacha, a large lateen rigged merchantman lying at anchor in the middle of the plate, the pontoon bridge running across the water behind her and the dome of a mosque and a tall minaret closing the left side. The Maiden Tower standing alone on its rock at the left with Scutari rising behind on its wooded bluff, a heavily laden ferry boat being rowed across the channel, swimmers in the water and a small caique in the right foreground.
The engraving belongs to Peter Jackson's issue of the Allom and Walsh Turkish Empire Illustrated, printed at the Caxton Press in London about 1850 from plates first cut for Fisher's Illustrations of Constantinople and its Environs. Allom was an architect as well as a topographical draftsman, which is why his buildings are measured rather than merely picturesque, and the steel engravers who worked up his drawings were the best in London. Steel engraving was introduced in the eighteen twenties and is what made illustrated travel books of this scale possible, because a steel plate will yield many thousands of impressions without the softening that copper suffers after a few hundred. The result is the very fine close worked line seen here, particularly in the skies and in the water, and an impression that stays crisp across the whole edition.
This is the classic prospect of the city, the view every traveler climbed to see, and it shows the whole peninsula in one plate with Hagia Sophia, the Suleymaniye and the Sultan Ahmed mosque all identifiable along the ridge. The floating bridge in this view is the first Galata bridge, and the plate catches the working port at its busiest, with gulls, caiques, a laden quay and the whole skyline of Stamboul behind. They are three original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. Framed as a set in plain wood or in gilt, the sheets give a hallway, a study or a dining room a deliberate and finished line that a single print cannot.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of two of the three sheets. Scattered foxing in the margins of two of the three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the three 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.
