View in the Levant, Harbor Quay below a Fortress, Antique Engraving, circa 1820

A harbor scene lettered "View in the Levant." On the left the massive stone wall of a fortress rises above a stepped quay, topped by a small domed watchtower. At its foot laborers handle barrels and a huge covered vessel is being moved, while women carry jars on their shoulders and a robed and turbaned man stands on the steps beside two seated women in turbans and veils. A small sailing boat with a long lateen yard lies against the quay, with two men in it, and on a rocky outcrop at right a fisherman in a turban holds up his rod with a fish on the line. Offshore a three masted ship rides at anchor beneath a sky of drifting clouds and seabirds, with a lighthouse tower and a low coastline on the horizon.

In British usage the Levant meant the lands of the eastern Mediterranean, from the Aegean coast of Anatolia to Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. The plate does not name a particular town, and the composition, with its picturesque groups of figures and its arrangement of fortress, quay and distant ship, follows the tradition of the eighteenth century imaginary harbor view rather than a record of one place. Merchants and travelers bound for Constantinople, Smyrna and Aleppo made such harbors familiar to European readers, and the robed figures and merchant shipping capture that world.

The plate carries no publisher's imprint, no date and no credits. Its paper, framing and engraving style place it in the early nineteenth century, around 1820, when such views were issued in popular illustrated geographies and books of travels.

The engraving is crisp, with fine work in the masonry of the fortress, the rigging of the ship and the clouds. It will appeal to collectors of Mediterranean and Near Eastern subjects and of maritime scenes.

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