The Palace of the Sultana Hatice, Constantinople.

MELLING, Antoine Ignace "Desiné par Melling. Gravé à l'eau-forte par Reville et le Rouge . Terminé par Née en 1813" The Palace of Sultana Hatice atDefterdarburnu. "Palais de La Sultane hadigÉ, à Defterdar-Bournou." Paris, Strassburg & London Treuttel et Würtz 1819
Large copper engraving of the palace of Sultana Hatice on the shores of the Bosphorus, from Antoine Ignace Melling's " Voyage Pittoresque de Constantinople et des Rives du Bosphore."Plate 29; black and white.
The plate shows the palace designed by Melling for his patroness the Sultana Hatice sister of Selem III. The magnificent palace sits right on the Bosphorus at Defterdarburnu. Small boats leave the with various ladies of the court. Dark impression; clean & bright; large margins; from an unfolded copy; slight wrinkles to image.

MELLING, Antoine Ignace (1763-1831).

Melling, who was trained in both architecture and painting, went to the city at the age of nineteen as a member of the Russian ambassador's retinue, and remained there for eighteen years. He became architect to Hatice Sultan, Selim III's sister, and the favour of the sultan himself eventually allowed him to study the interior of the Harem and other palaces. He returned to Paris in 1803, but despite producing a prospectus for his work soon afterwards, only began publication in 1809, finally completing it in 1819. The plates include some of the earliest interior views of the harem and the sultan's palaces, besides stunning delineations of the city's skylines, often with members of Ottoman society in the foreground.
Atabey: 798-799; Blackmer /Navari:1105; Brunet: III, 1591; Lipperheide:LB 41. 475 by 726mm (18¾ by 28½ inches).   ref: 2387  €1500