The Sultana in her State Arhuba, Antique Ottoman Procession, circa 1850

About this sheet

This original antique steel engraving shows Sultana in her State Arhuba, a plate from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. The sultana riding out in her state arhuba, a tasselled and canopied ox cart with embroidered hangings, drawn by a pair of garlanded white oxen led by a groom, a black eunuch walking alongside and further carriages and attendants in the wooded avenue behind.

This sheet was published in London about 1850 by Peter Jackson, late Fisher, Son and Company, in the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated. Thomas Allom traveled through Constantinople and Asia Minor making the original drawings, and the Reverend Robert Walsh, who had served as chaplain at the British embassy to the Porte, wrote the letterpress. The plates are steel engravings, a technique that holds a far finer line than copper and allowed the long print runs these illustrated travel books required. Each plate in the series carries the draftsman at the lower left and the engraver at the lower right, both printed inside the plate mark, with the English title in script below and a French translation beneath it on many sheets, which is how the publisher sold the work on both sides of the Channel. The fine tonal gradation is the work of the burin alone, with no aquatint or added wash.

The arhuba procession was the one occasion on which the women of the palace appeared in public, and this is the standard nineteenth century image of it, a figure subject with real documentary value for Ottoman court ceremony and vehicle design. Framed in gilt or in plain polished wood it suits a study, a library or a dining room, and it sits easily beside maps, marine prints and other nineteenth century travel material.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, left and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.

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.