Two Passes in the Balkan Mountains, 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 sheet shows a high pass in the Balkan range with a snow capped peak closing the head of the valley, a mounted traveler and a guide picking their way down the stony track and scattered rocks and scrub falling away to the gorge below. The sheet shows a narrow pass on the northern side of the Balkan range, rock walls rising close on both hands, a mounted party and laden animals moving along the stony floor of the defile and a bright opening in the distance.

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.

Charles Bentley was a watercolor painter of the Bonington circle and a member of the Old Water-Color Society, and this is the only sheet in the volume after him. The pass near Aidos, the modern Aytos, carried the main road from Constantinople into Bulgaria. The Balkan passes were the only way an army or a caravan could move between the Danube provinces and Roumelia, and they decided the course of every Russo-Turkish war of the century. The plate is a companion in subject to the Haidhos pass earlier in the volume. 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 towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Light 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.