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 the Yeni Cami rising straight out of the water at Eminonu, its cascade of domes and twin minarets above the quay, with loaded caiques, a lateen rigged craft and a crowded landing stage filling the foreground. The sheet shows the mosque of Selim the Third at Scutari with its dome and twin minarets above a walled court, cypresses and tombs at its foot, and figures and a laden animal on the open ground in front of the precinct.
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.
This is one of the few plates in the volume not drawn by Allom. John Richardson Coke Smyth was a traveling artist best known for his Canadian subjects, and his Constantinople drawings are much scarcer than Allom's, which makes a sheet credited to him of interest beyond the subject itself. Selim the Third was the reforming sultan destroyed by the Janissaries he tried to replace, and the Selimiye complex at Scutari was built beside the barracks of his new model army. The barracks next door became Florence Nightingale's hospital a few years after this plate was drawn. 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. 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.
