'one of the most sympathetic of Orientalist painters'

One of the very finest illustrated books on Constantinople by a master of the lithographic technique.

Lewis, 'one of the most sympathetic of Orientalist painters' (Koç), travelled extensively in the Levant, but these drawings were not made by him. They were made by the artist Coke Smyth who was in Constantinople several years before Lewis visited that city. Lewis travelled in the East from c. 1839 to 1851. He and Wilkie met in Constantinople in 1840, and in 1844 Thackeray saw him in Cairo. Nothing seems to be known about Coke Smyth's travels in the East. Sometime later he travelled in North America and produced Sketches in Canada [1839].

First edition; folio, (56.5 x 38 cm); 28 lithographed plates on 26 sheets, including title vignette, lithographed dedication leaf to King William with list of plates on verso; publisher's original quarter green morocco, rebacked to style retaining original gilt lettered compartment, cloth boards with title in gilt to upper board, boards a little rubbed with a few water spots to upper board, a very good copy.

Abbey (Travel), 394; Atabey I, 724; Blackmer 1015; Koç II, 331.