Mosque of Buyuk Djami at Scutari, Antique Bosphorus View, circa 1850

€ 180

Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)

Date: circa 1850
Mapmaker / artist: Thomas Allom (after); engraved by J. Redaway
Publisher: Peter Jackson, late Fisher, Son and Co., London and Paris
Technique: Steel Engraving
Coloring: Uncolored
Sheet size: 21 × 27 cm (8.3 × 10.6 in)
Condition: Good
Reference: BG-14186-1-5

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Condition

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

About this sheet

This original antique steel engraving shows Mosque of Buyuk Djami at Scutari, a plate from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. The great mosque of Scutari on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, its dome and twin minarets rising above a terrace of cypresses and tombstones, with figures resting in the foreground and the water and the European shore beyond.

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.

Scutari, now Uskudar, was the point where the pilgrim road to Mecca began, and a mosque on this terrace was the last great building the caravans passed before leaving the city, which gives the sheet a significance beyond its architecture. It frames well on its own over a desk or a chest, and it is equally at home in a group with other Ottoman and Levantine views, where the uniform plate size of the series makes an even wall.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

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.