View of the Dardanelles, Ottoman Fortress and Shipping, Engraving, circa 1783

An eighteenth century copper engraving lettered "View of the Dardanelles", showing one of the great Ottoman castles that guarded the narrow strait between Europe and Asia. The plate carries no artist's or publisher's name.

A massive fortress with round towers, battlements, gun ports and an arched gateway rises at the left, built directly on the quay, with figures in Turkish dress standing and sitting at its foot. In the foreground boatmen work their small craft beside the landing stage. Out on the choppy water a large three masted ship with a richly carved stern flies pennants from every mast, while a galley with lateen sails and a bank of oars drives forward at the right. Across the strait a second castle with towers and a long walled enclosure stands against distant hills, and great piled clouds fill the sky.

The Dardanelles, the Hellespont of antiquity, connect the Aegean with the Sea of Marmara and the approach to Constantinople. The Ottoman castles built on either shore, from the fifteenth century onward, controlled all shipping that passed, and travelers and naval officers described them with a mixture of admiration and anxiety. The engraver presents the scene as a lively harbor picture, with the bustle of shipping and the exotic dress of the figures giving British readers a vivid impression of the Ottoman world.

The plate matches in format, border and lettering a series of English topographical engravings of the 1780s that includes the Ruins of Palmyra and The Funeral Pile of a Talapoin, published by Harrison and Co. in London in 1782 and 1783. It is a crisp line engraving printed in black on laid paper with good margins. It will appeal to collectors of Turkish and Levantine views, of maritime history and of the eastern Mediterranean, and it would frame well beside views of Constantinople or the Greek islands.

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