Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore.

Rare unfolded example. A superior unfolded copy of the first edition of Antoine Melling's magnificent work on Constantinople. 'one of the finest topographical illustrated books ever produced' (Koç). Unfolded examples rarely appear on the market.

The magnificent plates include some of the earliest interior views of the harem and other palaces, besides stunning delineations of the city's skylines, often with members of Ottoman society in the foreground.

Born in Karlsruhe in 1763 into a family of painters from Lorraine, Antoine Ignace Melling, studied painting and mathematics before, at the age of nineteen, travelling to the Levant as a member of the Russian Ambasador's household. In Constantinople he was fortunate to be introduced to Sultan Selim III's half-sister Hatice Sultan by the Danish ambassador Baron Hübsch. Melling worked for Hatice Sultan at her palace at Ortaköy where he designed a maze in the style of one in the garden of Baron Hübsch, and the success of this encouraged Hatice Sultan to employ Melling to create a new palace for her in the neoclassical style.

At the princess's suggestion Sultan Selim III appointed Melling as Imperial Architect, a privileged position which gave him the opportunity to observe the Ottoman Court at close hand during his 18 years in Constantinople. He became more familiar with the Ottoman palaces than any Western artist since Gentile Bellini, and produced numerous detailed drawings of the architecture and Ottoman society as well as fine vedute of Constantinople. One anonymous contemporary travelogue referred to Melling as 'the unrivalled painter of the Bosphorus'.

Returning to Paris in 1803, Melling issued a prospectus for the Voyage pittoresque in 1804. Publication eventually began in 1809, and over the next ten years thirteen livraisons appeared, the last being issued in 1819. The outstanding success of the exhibitions held to showcase the original paintings on which the Voyage pittoresque was based earned Melling the title of painter to the Empress Josephine. He died in Paris in 1831.

First edition. 2 vols, Broadsheet folio (106 x 658. cm) and broadsheet folio text (71.4 x 53.7 cm). ATLAS: Engraved title, 3 double-page maps and 48 double-page etched plates after Melling by Schroeder, Bertaux, Le Rouge, Pillement, Desaux, Dessaulx, Desmaisons, Duparc, Dequevauviller, Nee, and others, some before numbers (3.5 inch repaired tear to the title with small loss, marginal dampstain to endpapers and first two plates, some spotting/foxing, nearly all marginal). Contemporary red quarter roan over red boards, spine gilt. TEXT: Engraved frontispiece portrait. Title-page printed in black and gilt (half-title and five other text leaves heavily browned, scattered minor spotting). Untrimmed. Contemporary half red morocco, spine gilt.

Atabey 798-799; Blackmer 1105; Brunet III, 1591; Lipperheide LB 41; Koç (Constantinople) I, 214; Weber 77.