Smyrna from Castle and Harbor, Pair of Antique Allom Views, circa 1850

This is a set of two original antique steel engravings, sold together as one lot, from the first volume of The Turkish Empire Illustrated, published in London by Peter Jackson about 1850. The sheets are, in order: The Castle of Smyrna; Smyrna from the Harbor. The ruined castle of Smyrna on its hill above the city, broken curtain walls and towers along the crest, the roofs of the town falling away to the gulf below and figures and animals resting among the stones in the foreground. Smyrna seen from the water in a fresh breeze, a lateen rigged trading vessel heeling under shortened sail in the left foreground, a crowded rowing boat pitching beside it, and the long line of the quay and the castle hill beyond.

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 castle crowns Mount Pagus and is the one structure that ties modern Izmir to the Greek and Byzantine city beneath it, so it is the natural companion to the harbor view in any pair of Smyrna sheets. This is the best marine subject in the volume, a working harbor view with real weather in it, and it is the sheet that shows why Smyrna was the busiest port on the Ottoman Aegean coast. They are two original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. A matched group like this is easier to place than a single sheet, because it fills a wall on its own, and the common ground and plate size mean the frames can be identical.

Light uneven toning, browner toward 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.