Palace of Eyoub Interior, Home of Asme Sultana, Allom, circa 1850

About this sheet

This original antique steel engraving shows Palace of Eyoub Interior, Home of Asme Sultana, Allom, a plate from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. A richly carved and latticed reception room in the palace of Eyoub on the Golden Horn, the residence of Asme Sultana, with women seated on the low divan beneath a deeply coffered ceiling and a fretted window screen throwing patterned light across the carpet.

This sheet was published in London about 1850 by Peter Jackson, late Fisher, Son and Company, in the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated. Thomas Allom traveled through Constantinople and Asia Minor making the original drawings, and the Reverend Robert Walsh, who had served as chaplain at the British embassy to the Porte, wrote the letterpress. The plates are steel engravings, a technique that holds a far finer line than copper and allowed the long print runs these illustrated travel books required. Each plate in the series carries the draftsman at the lower left and the engraver at the lower right, both printed inside the plate mark, with the English title in script below and a French translation beneath it on many sheets, which is how the publisher sold the work on both sides of the Channel. The fine tonal gradation is the work of the burin alone, with no aquatint or added wash.

Allom's interiors are the rarest part of his Turkish work, because a European draftsman was almost never admitted to a private Ottoman apartment, and this sheet records the woodwork, the divan arrangement and the window lattices of a princely house that no longer stands. Framed in gilt or in plain polished wood it suits a study, a library or a dining room, and it sits easily beside maps, marine prints and other nineteenth century travel material.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. Scattered foxing 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.