Turkish Chamber Servants with Dishes, Censer and Pipe, Lithograph, 1842

This original antique lithograph, hand colored, comes from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). The upper image shows two servants walking to the right. The first, in a tall dark cap wrapped with a yellow turban, wears a long white robe with yellow banded sleeves, a red sash and a white shawl, and carries a plate heaped with a yellow mound. The second, in the same headdress, wears a long white robe patterned with red and yellow flowers and carries a tray with a bulbous ewer and a censer giving off a cloud of gray smoke. The lower image shows two more servants before hills and trees. The man at the left in a white and yellow turban and a long ocher robe with a red sash holds a long stemmed pipe, its bowl resting on the ground, and a small dark pouch. The man at the right, in a turban and a white robe scattered with red flowers, carries a small jug on a dish in his outstretched hand.

The lettering reads "Tav 116" at the top left, "TURCHIA EUROPEA" at the center and "Tom IV" at the top right. Both images carry the same caption, "Camerieri" (chamber servants).

The plate belongs to the section of the volume on European Turkey, the provinces of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. In Italian "camerieri" are household attendants, and the dishes, censer and pipe show the services these men performed.

A decorative piece for a collection of Eastern costume or a room with a Turkish theme.

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