Los 4067

Ottoman Empire
Portraits of people of the Ottoman Empire

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 4.12.2024

Photographer: Pascal Sébah (1823-1886) and possibly others. Attractive and very comprehensive portrait album showing a wide range of people living in the Ottoman Empire. 1860s-1870s. Circa 400 cartes-de-visite sized albumen prints, mounted to album pages, each annotated in ink in French below the images on the mount (time-stained/soiled in edges), bound in contemporary half leather canvas album (edges rubbed/small tears, corners worn) with gilt embossed title Collection des Types et Costumes de la Turquie par Pascal Sébah.

This exceptionally comprehensive album features portraits of nearly all the peoples and cultures within the Ottoman Empire around 1860-70, as well as neighboring regions under its influence. It vividly illustrates the remarkable diversity of the empire’s political, economic, and cultural life, including portraits of high-ranking officials, officers, and armed personnel in their various uniforms and attire. The collection also includes images of embassy staff, eunuchs, and dwarfs from the Sultan’s court, as well as priests and bishops representing the spectrum of Oriental Christian religions. Additional groups, such as dervishes, mullahs, sheikhs, street vendors, veiled women, farmers, Jews, musicians, pilgrims and beggars, further enrich this extraordinary album. – Some faded in edges, some light scuff marks, otherwise most in very good condition.

Lit.: Bahattin Öztuncay. The Photographers of Constantinople. Pioneers, studios and artists from 19th century Istanbul. Istanbul 2006 (2nd edition), ill. p. 494-499 (street sellers).