The Gygean Lake and Place of the Thousand Tombs, Antique View, circa 1850
€ 190
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 S. Fisher
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-14186-1-48
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
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.
About this sheet
This original antique steel engraving shows Gygean Lake and Place of the Thousand Tombs, a plate from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. The Gygean Lake lying still under a wide sky with clouds of wildfowl rising from the reed beds, the burial mounds of the Lydian kings on the far shore and a camel train with its drivers moving along the rising ground at the right.
The plate comes from The Turkish Empire Illustrated: Constantinople and its Environs, with the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, drawn from nature by Thomas Allom with descriptions by the Reverend Robert Walsh, chaplain to the British embassy at the Ottoman Porte. The sheets were engraved on steel for Fisher, Son and Company in the late eighteen thirties and printed again for this edition by Peter Jackson at the Caxton Press in Angel Street, Saint Martin's le Grand, London, with a Liverpool address at Post Office Place, about 1850. The technique is steel engraving, worked by a named London engraver from Allom's own drawing, and the credit lines are printed in the lower corners of the plate with the publisher's imprint centered beneath. Impressions from this series are uncolored as issued, and this sheet has never been colored later.
The tumuli on this shore are the tombs of the kings of Lydia, among them the mound traditionally given to Alyattes, father of Croesus, which makes this quiet lake view one of the most archaeologically loaded sheets in the book. A sheet of this size hangs well in a simple dark frame with a generous off-white mount, and a row of them along a hall or above a stair makes a quiet topographical sequence.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.
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.
