BRINDESI, Jean. - Lot 51

BRINDESI, Jean. Elbicei Atika. Museum of ancient Turkish costumes of Constantinople. Paris, Lemercier, s.d. [1855]. In-folio, title and 22 plates. Publisher's green percaline, top board decorated with title in gilt lettering with gilt motif, all in a cold-stamped frame (slight wear rubbing, some foxing). A handsome album, complete with plates and in the publisher's binding. Chromolithographed title-frontispiece and 22 color lithographs inscribed in ornate gilded scrollwork frames. Based on drawings by Jean Brindesi (1826-1888), an Italian Orientalist painter born in Constantinople, where he was active between 1850 and 1877 and died. Costumes of civil and military dignitaries from the court of Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II (1808-1839), portrayed by Brindesi on plate I. "The Reforms (Tanzimat) of Sultan Mahmoud (...) dealt a severe blow to the picturesque from 1829 onwards, replacing turbans and long garments with the fez and the stambouline frock coat. The Museum of Ancient Costumes (Elbise-i Atika) opened in Constantinople in 1852, on the Place de l'Hippodrome, as a "retrospective wardrobe of the old Turkish Empire" and a "herbarium" of its "ancient nationality", according to Théophile Gautier, who visited it. It featured mannequins dressed in costumes from bygone eras, in particular those of the Janissaries, a corps abolished in 1826. Jean Brindesi (...) staged this gallery" (Ch. Peltre, BnF, Bibliothèques d'Orient). Lithographs by Régnier, Bettanier, Lemoine, Bayalos, Bour, Raunhiem, Hadamar, Gilbert, Duruy... Attabey, 151. Colas, I, 159. Lipperheide, 1438. Vinet, 2340. Topkapi Palace. Orientalism. [Turkey]. [Costumes].