Other Prints · 19th century
€ 450
One of a kind: this is the sheet in the photographs. Ships from Langweer, the Netherlands.
Original/contemporary hand coloring. General age-related toning, some foxing. Minor wear and soiling, blank verso. Please study image carefully.
THE Janizaries are divided into one hundred and one ortahs, or regiments; each Janizary impresses a mark upon his arm expressive of the ortah to which he belongs, by puncturing his skin with a needle and rubbing gunpowder upon it, which makes an indelible impression. A crescent is the symbol of the first ortah, in which the Sultan is enrolled; that of the thirty-first, which serves on board the fleet, is an anchor.
The number of Janizaries in each ortah is not fixed, but depends upon its celebrity; from a vanity natural enough, greater numbers enrolling themselves in such ortahs as are most distinguished; the number in some is extremely great, that of the thirty-fifth, amounting to nearly thirty thousand.
This plate represents a Janizary belonging to a different ortah to the preceding.'
Illustrated by a series of engravings, from drawings made on the spot. Dedicated, by permission, to His Excellency the Minister of the Ottoman Porte to His Britannic Majesty. Published By Thomas McLean, London, 1818.
The paper is watermarked "J WHATMAN 1817".
