“A Soldier” from Dalvimart’s The Costume of Turkey, 1802

An original stone-printed plate titled “A Soldier” from The Costume of Turkey (1802), the landmark codex of sixty plates documenting dress across the Ottoman Empire. The images derive from on-site observations made by Octavian Dalvimart, a European artist who traveled widely through Ottoman territories in the late 18th century under British patronage.

This impression is from the first edition, published January 1st, 1802 by William Miller of Old Bond Street, London, with William Poole as lithographer. It was produced by the chromolithographic stone technique rather than hand-coloring: each color was laid down from a separate stone in careful alignment, and the subtle overlaps and crisp registration visible in the close-up images are physical evidence of that hand-printed process.

The subject is an Ottoman soldier carrying a rifle with bayonet, dressed in deep blue voluminous trousers, a red waistband, a white chest harness, and a red cap with black tassel, attire characteristic of late 18th-century military dress. Printed on medium-weight india wove paper, the plate is accompanied by a separate title page with descriptions in English and French on front and back.