View Bosphorus by Melling (1 results)

28.4z43.5 cm. Hand-colored etching, published by James Whittle & R. H. Laurie. Mild age toning, bottom right and top right corners, outside the plate line, are missing, light chipping at left and bottom edges. Light smudge at the beginning of the title. The printed area is very good, though with four small stain spots in the sky. This was published as a pair, the other (not present here) is titled "View of the Bosphorus, Taken from Kandilly." This print is numbered 146 and Pl. I. This beautiful image depicts a group of people in bright Western-style fancy dress dancing with their backs to the Bosporus Straights, apparently entertaining a group of four men in more Middle Eastern attire. The listing in the V&A catalogue puts the date of publication as 1821, though the copyright date is 6 July 1818. Laurie & Whittle were particularly noted as publishers of maps. James Whittle died in 1818, making this among the last publications to carry his name. A very rare print, with the only catalogued entry found being that of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The V&A entry for the companion print notes that that plate is a version of a plate in A. I. Melling's "Voyage Pittoresque de Constantinople et des Rives du Bosphore." The entry for this print does not suggest the same source, but it almost certainly is. This print is not removed from that volume as the plates there do not carry the Whittle & Laurie imprint. V&A SP.402:2.