Details
MELLING, Antoine Ignace (1763-1831). Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore. Paris: Treuttel and Würtz, de l'imprimerie de P. Didot l'ainé, 1819.
2 volumes, large 2° (665 x 525mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Sultan Selim III, letterpress title with gold printed tughra, engraved title bound before descriptive text in volume I, half-title bound in at the beginning of volume II, 48 LARGE DOUBLE-PAGE ENGRAVED VIEWS by Schroeder, Duparc, Le Rouge, Desaulx and others after Melling, 3 double-page engraved maps by J. B. Barbié du Bocage and F. Kauffer. (Offsetting of frontispiece onto title, plates and maps spotted, mainly in margins, also some text leaves.) Contemporary diced russia, covers panelled in gilt with outer rules and inner roll-tool border, gilt spine in six compartments with double raised bands, lettered in two sections, gilt inner dentelles (joints slightly cracked and rubbed at head and foot, corners bumped).
A large copy of Melling's impressive work on Constantinople. Melling was born in Karlsruhe of an artistic family, and as a young man studied painting and architecture. At 19 he set off on his travels around the Levant and Turkey, arriving at Constantinople in 1785. Through an introduction by the Danish Ambassador he was engaged as the architect to renovate the Sultan's sister's palace at Ortakeuï. His work brought him to the attention of Sultan Selim III, who granted him freedom to study the architecture of the palaces, and as a result Melling's work provides some of the earliest and most detailed interior views of the Harem and other palaces. He returned to Paris in 1803 and immediately issued his prospectus for the Voyage pittoresque. The publication eventually began in 1809, and comprised 13 livraisons, finally completed in 1819. The exhibition of several of his watercolours in the Salon in Paris brought him considerable popularity, as well as the patronage of the Empress Joséphine. Following the completion of the work he made several tours around France, and later in the Pyrenees (1821-25), subsequently publishing his second major work Voyage pittoresque dans les Pyrénées françaises in 1826-30. He was made Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1825.
Blackmer 1105; Lipperheide Lb41; Graesse IV, 473. (2)
2 volumes, large 2° (665 x 525mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Sultan Selim III, letterpress title with gold printed tughra, engraved title bound before descriptive text in volume I, half-title bound in at the beginning of volume II, 48 LARGE DOUBLE-PAGE ENGRAVED VIEWS by Schroeder, Duparc, Le Rouge, Desaulx and others after Melling, 3 double-page engraved maps by J. B. Barbié du Bocage and F. Kauffer. (Offsetting of frontispiece onto title, plates and maps spotted, mainly in margins, also some text leaves.) Contemporary diced russia, covers panelled in gilt with outer rules and inner roll-tool border, gilt spine in six compartments with double raised bands, lettered in two sections, gilt inner dentelles (joints slightly cracked and rubbed at head and foot, corners bumped).
A large copy of Melling's impressive work on Constantinople. Melling was born in Karlsruhe of an artistic family, and as a young man studied painting and architecture. At 19 he set off on his travels around the Levant and Turkey, arriving at Constantinople in 1785. Through an introduction by the Danish Ambassador he was engaged as the architect to renovate the Sultan's sister's palace at Ortakeuï. His work brought him to the attention of Sultan Selim III, who granted him freedom to study the architecture of the palaces, and as a result Melling's work provides some of the earliest and most detailed interior views of the Harem and other palaces. He returned to Paris in 1803 and immediately issued his prospectus for the Voyage pittoresque. The publication eventually began in 1809, and comprised 13 livraisons, finally completed in 1819. The exhibition of several of his watercolours in the Salon in Paris brought him considerable popularity, as well as the patronage of the Empress Joséphine. Following the completion of the work he made several tours around France, and later in the Pyrenees (1821-25), subsequently publishing his second major work Voyage pittoresque dans les Pyrénées françaises in 1826-30. He was made Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1825.
Blackmer 1105; Lipperheide Lb41; Graesse IV, 473. (2)