About this sheet
This is a set of three original antique steel engravings, sold together as one lot, from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. The sheets are, in order: Remains of the Church of Saint John at Pergamus; The City of Thyatira; Laodicea, One of the Seven Churches. The gaunt brick ruins of the church of Saint John at Pergamus standing above the town, a round tower and a great apse wall still at full height, cypresses crowding the walls and a camel train passing along the road beneath. Thyatira lying in its wide valley with a broken Byzantine tower on the hillside at the right, carved classical fragments and sarcophagus lids scattered across the foreground, a mounted caravan on the road and snow on the mountains beyond. The ruins of Laodicea spread across a bare plateau, a tall arcaded wall and broken arches standing against the sky, carved cornices and column drums lying where they fell, a black tent pitched among them and camels couched beside it.
The engraving belongs to Peter Jackson's issue of the Allom and Walsh Turkish Empire Illustrated, printed at the Caxton Press in London about 1850 from plates first cut for Fisher's Illustrations of Constantinople and its Environs. Allom was an architect as well as a topographical draftsman, which is why his buildings are measured rather than merely picturesque, and the steel engravers who worked up his drawings were the best in London. Steel engraving was introduced in the eighteen twenties and is what made illustrated travel books of this scale possible, because a steel plate will yield many thousands of impressions without the softening that copper suffers after a few hundred. The result is the very fine close worked line seen here, particularly in the skies and in the water, and an impression that stays crisp across the whole edition.
This is the Red Basilica, one of the largest surviving Roman buildings in Asia Minor and the church addressed in the Revelation, and the plate shows it before any clearance, with Ottoman houses built against its flanks. Thyatira is the fourth of the Seven Churches of the Revelation and the one with least to show above ground, so an accurate nineteenth century view of its site with the ancient marbles still lying in the fields has real documentary weight. They are three original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. Framed as a set in plain wood or in gilt, the sheets give a hallway, a study or a dining room a deliberate and finished line that a single print cannot.
Even age toning throughout. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Scattered foxing in the margins of all three 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.
