Piccolo Bent, Ottoman Waterworks and Waterfall, Antique Aquatint, 1809

An original antique aquatint with original hand color, 1809, one of the views drawn by Luigi Mayer and published in London by Robert Bowyer. The caption engraved below the image reads "PICCOLÓ BENT."

A massive masonry dam built of large blocks and buttressed with tall piers, set among trees and rocks. Water pours from two openings near the top of the wall in white falls and foams over a series of stone steps into the stream below; a low arch opens at the foot of the wall.

Two small figures stand on the top of the dam at the left, and two more on its higher section at the right. In the foreground three men sit together on the grass, and at the right, beside a tree, a woman veiled in white and two men in long robes, one in red, stand talking on the path.

No artist or engraver is named on the plate, and it carries no plate number. The caption is engraved in open capitals below the image, and beneath it a publication line in script gives the publisher Robert Bowyer, his address at 80 Pall Mall, and the date 1809. The plate comes from Views in the Ottoman Dominions, in Europe, in Asia, and some of the Mediterranean Islands, from the original drawings taken for Sir Robert Ainslie, by Luigi Mayer, printed by T. Bensley for R. Bowyer in London in 1810 with 71 hand colored aquatint plates (Abbey, Travel II, 371; Tooley 321). In the book each plate was accompanied by a page of descriptive text in French and English. The plates are unsigned; the aquatint work is probably by William Watts. Luigi Mayer (1755 to 1803) was an Italian born artist who worked in the Ottoman Empire for Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador at Constantinople. Bent is the Turkish word for a dam; dams of this kind in the forests north of Constantinople stored water for the city.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.