Constantinople. Vue prise de la Tour du Séraskiérat. by [SÉBAH…

8 albumen prints (each 248 × 165 mm) mounted on paper covered stiff boards (the complete panorama c. 2100 × 250 mm), title and caption in red and blue manuscript, presented in concertina form in contemporary black pebble-grained morocco. Light fading and some very minor creasing to the photographs around the folds. Boards rubbed. A very good copy.

A RARE PHOTOGRAPHIC PANORAMA OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Taken from the Serasker or Beyazit Tower beside the Ottoman Ministry of War, the 360-degree panorama first looks north-west to the Süleymaniye mosque an across the Golden Horn, and sweeps clockwise) eastwards, taking in Galata, the Grand Bazaar, the Seraglio, Scutari in the distance on the Asian shore, Hagia Sophia, Sultan Ahmet (Blue) and Beyazit mosques, before returning to the square of Ministry of War and an alternate view of Süleymaniye. Though not signed it is similar to the panoramas issues by Sebah and Joallier in the 1870s and 1880s. Constantiople panoramas are more commonly taken from the Galata tower on the northern shore of the Golden Horn, where as this one looks from the southern shore.