About this sheet
This is an original set of three 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 timber houses of Bebek standing directly on the water of the Bosphorus, a small mosque among them, caiques moored at the water stairs and figures on the quay with wooded hills rising steeply behind the village. The second sheet shows a Greek priest's house among trees on the Bosphorus shore near Yenikoy, a vine shaded terrace in front of it, figures at the door and on the path below and the water of the strait showing through the foliage. The third sheet shows the Palace of Said Pasha on the Bosphorus.
They are three 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.
Bebek is the pretty bay on the European shore just below Roumeli Hissar, and the yali, the timber waterside house drawn here with its overhanging upper floor, is the characteristic Bosphorus building type. Many of these wooden houses have since been lost. The Bosphorus villages held substantial Greek communities and their clergy, and this quiet domestic subject is a record of Ottoman Christian life rather than of Ottoman monuments. Subjects of this kind are uncommon in the series and give the volume its range. 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.
Even age toning throughout. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Light foxing in the margins of all 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.
