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 deep avenue of cypresses in the great burial ground of Scutari on the Asian shore, turbaned headstones leaning among the trunks, a veiled group seated at a grave in the middle distance and shafts of light falling through the dark canopy. The second sheet shows the small burial ground on the heights of Pera, cypresses and leaning headstones in the foreground with groups of figures resting among them, and the whole city of Constantinople spread out below across the Golden Horn.
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 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.
The cemetery at Scutari is one of the largest Muslim burial grounds in the world and the one every nineteenth century traveler to Constantinople described, because Ottomans of the European city chose to be buried on the Asian side. The Petit Champ des Morts was the Europeans' promenade as much as a cemetery, the place where the foreign colony of Pera walked in the evening for the view, and Allom draws it exactly that way, as a social scene with one of the great city views of Europe behind it. 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 both sheets. Scattered foxing in the margins of both sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the two 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.
