The Balkans after Francis Herve, Pair of Antique Views, 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 a ruined archway standing at the mouth of a cavern in a Balkan gorge, the rock face rising sheer on both sides, a party of travelers and their baggage animals halted on the broken ground beneath and a thread of sky showing at the head of the ravine. The second sheet shows a track winding through a wooded defile on the border of Bulgaria and Roumelia, steep slopes rising on either hand, a string of pack animals and riders strung out along the road and the mountain opening to a pale distance ahead.

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 by Francis Herve, 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.

Both plates are after Francis Herve, the English portrait painter who traveled through Turkey in the eighteen thirties and published his own account of it. His Balkan sheets have a rougher and more immediate quality than Allom's measured architecture. The frontier between Bulgaria and Roumelia was the hinge of the overland route from central Europe into the Ottoman capital, and Herve drew it from the saddle on his own journey. 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. Scattered foxing in the margins of both sheets. All corners complete on every sheet.

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.