Greece and the Levant: A Private Library

/

Lot 7
  • 7

# - Barker, Henry Aston.

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • A Series of Eight Views, forming a Panorama of the celebrated City of Constantinople, and its environs, taken from the town of Galata... and exhibited in his Great Rotunda, Leicester Square. London: Thomas Palser and Henry Aston Barker, January 1st, 1813
first and only edition, broadsides (sheets 710 x 585mm.; images 490 x 500mm.), printed title, plain etched key plate, 8 hand-coloured aquatint and etched plates numbered 1-8 forming a panorama of constantinople, etched by C. Tomkins and aquatinted by F.C. and G. Lewis after drawings made on the spot by H.A. Barker, loose as issued in a modern cloth portfolio, a few very minor marginal tears repairs

Literature

Blackmer 76; not in Abbey; Atabey 60 (one plate in facsimile)

Catalogue Note

a fine set of the plates forming this magnificent panorama, which if joined would be 4 metres wide.

In 1797 Robert Barker took out a patent which gave him exclusive rights to exhibit 360o paintings mimicking nature. His first exhibition was of a painting of London and for this friends provided him with a title sufficiently striking to gain a permanent place in the English language. 'Panorama', derived from the Greek words meaning 'all' and 'view' had its first use in 1791 in the advertisements for the picture of London.

Together with his son Henry Aston Barker, Robert opened a new and fashionable venue in Leicester Square, 'The Panorama', where examples of this new art form were exhibited to an eager public. A form of education and entertainment, the Barkers' panoramas soon became "all the rage" according to the artist John Constable. When their monopoly ended in 1801, the Barkers realised that they had to take steps to ensure their patrons were not enticed away to rival exhibitions. As a result, views from all parts of the globe started to appear at Leicester Square and, in 1801 the first foreign city to be presented at the Panorama was Constantinople. The present aquatint plates form a reproduction of the view. Indeed they represent the only large-scale reproduction of any of the views exhibited.