Beschreibung:

Antoine Ignace Melling
Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore. Paris: P. Didot l’aine, 1819
FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, folio (667 x 540mm.), engraved portrait frontispiece of Sultan Selim III, engraved titles (that in volume 2 cut down and mounted), tughra on letterpress title page heightened with gold, 3 double-page engraved maps and plans, and 48 DOUBLE-PAGE PLATES, ALL IN PROOF STATE before letters (and many before numbers), by Duparc, Schroeder, Née, Dupréel, Dessaulx, Marillier, and others after Melling, contemporary russia gilt, 4 plates in volume 2 with nearly invisible marginal repairs, letterpress title and one text leaf slightly foxed, binding rebacked preserving original backstrips
Melling’s massive and superbly illustrated work devoted to eighteenth-century Constantinople provides the earliest interior views and plans of the harems and palaces of Sultan Selim III. Brunet declares it “a magnificent work,” and the bibliography of the Ömer Koç collection considers it “one of the finest topographical illustrated books ever produced”.
In 1795 architect and painter Antoine Ignace Melling (1763-1831) arrived in Constantinople and, after an introduction by the Danish ambassador, was appointed imperial architect by Selim III. In the course of his duties, he designed and landscaped a seaside palace for Selim’s sister, Princess Hatice, and produced these striking panoramic views of the city and its environs. Following these projects Melling returned to Paris and in 1804 issued a prospectus for the present work. He established an engraving studio in 1809 to reproduce these drawings and began publishing the completed prints as a series of fascicles that were sent to subscribers. The last one appeared in 1819.
The outstanding success of an exhibition of the paintings on which the Voyage Pittoresque was based earned Melling the rank of painter to the Empress Josephine. One can see why the empress was impressed: the detail and subtlety of the engravings are remarkable, and thescenes are relatable The architecture, costumes, or landscape may be exotic, but the activities—keeping house, socializing with friends in a parlour or at hillside picnics, going hunting—strike a familiar chord.
REFERENCES: Atabey 798; Blackmer 1105; Koç, “Constantinople” I, 214; Lipperheide 1431; Brunet III, 1591 (“magnifique ouvrage”)