Sebah & Joaillier, "Le Pont de Galata," Istanbul, 1890s

A sepia view of the Galata Bridge, Le Pont de Galata, in Istanbul, taken in the 1890s by the studio of Sebah & Joaillier. The print is numbered and signed in the negative: "44 Le Pont de Galata" at the lower left, and the studio name "Sebah & Joaillier" at the lower right.

The studio was founded by Pascal Sebah and Georges Joaillier, working in Istanbul in the late nineteenth century and known for photographs produced by the wet plate collodion process. Alongside portraits and views of the city, they documented people and events across the Ottoman Empire and beyond; in 1899 the firm was granted the title of Ottoman Palace Photographers. The studio continued into the early twentieth century, and its work is now regarded as an important historical record.

The photograph measures approximately 216 × 266 mm (8½ × 10½ in) and is mounted on a board of approximately 275 × 354 mm (10¾ × 14 in). Ready for framing.