MELLING Antoine-Ignace Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore.

Blackmer; 1105; Atabey, 798; Koç Collection, 214; Lipperheide, 1434 & Lb 41.

First edition, published in 13 parts between 1809 and 1819.

“Antoine-Ignace (or Anton Ignaz) Melling (1763- 1831) was born in Karlsruhe, the son of a sculptor: after his father’s death, he lived with an uncle, a painter, in Strasbourg. At the age of 19 he left for Italy and the Levant, finally arriving in Constantinople in the retinue of the Russian ambassador. He was introduced to Selim III’s sister, Hatice Sultan (1766-1821) by Baron Hübsch, for whom he had designed a garden, and quickly became intimate with the Ottoman court. (Friedrich Hübsch von Grossthal, the envoy of Denmark and Saxony, was a banker and merchant, a native of Pera and a partner in the firm of Hübsch and Timoni; he was ennobled by Emperor Joseph II in1782, the title Grossthal being a translation of Büyükdere (or large valley), where he had his summer residence.)

In 1795 Hatice chose Melling as her architect, commissioning first a labyrinth for her palace at Ortaköy, then a redesigned Interior for the building, and ultimately an entire new Neoclassical palace at Defterdarburnu. His privileged position enabled him to produce a large number of highly detailed drawings of the city’s buildings, including what is probably the only accurate interior of an imperial harem. In 1803 Melling left Constantinople for Paris and soon started making plans for the publication in instalments of the Voyage pittoresque. The first prospectus appeared in 1803-04. inviting subscribers to register with the notary Boulard and naming the printer as Pierre Didot l’aine. With the patronage of Talleyrand, then minister for foreign affairs, Melling was appointed landscape painter to the Empress Joséphine, and the fascicules which comprised the Voyage began to appear in 1809. The engravings after Melling are by Duparc, Schroeder, Née, Dupréel, Dessaulx, Marillier and others; the maps are by Barbie du Bocage after Kauffer; the splendid gilt chromo- lithograph tuğra on the engraved title, copied under the aegis of one of the Ottoman court officials, is also noteworthy. The result is one of the finest topographical illustrated books ever produced” (Koç).

Complete copy with the engraved portrait, the 3 engraved maps and the 48 plates depicting views of Constantinople, the riverbanks of the Bosporus, and a large variety of palaces and their interiors including the Imperial harem.

Portait with old restoration.

Provenance : James de Rothschild (coat of arms on cover, library label ‘Ferrières’ on the inner cover).

Provenance : James de Rothschild (coat of arms on cover, library label ‘Ferrières’ on the inner cover).