Sebah & Joaillier, Panoramic View of Tophane and the Bosphorus

An original sepia photograph by the Istanbul studio of Sebah & Joaillier, dating to the 1890s and titled in the negative "Vue panoramique de Top-Hane et du Bosphore", a panoramic view of Tophane and the Bosphorus.

The image is captioned, numbered, and signed in the negative, with the number and title at bottom center: "320 Vue panoramique de Top Hane et du Bosphore," and the studio name beneath. The large multi-domed building at left is the Tophane, the armory of the Ottoman Empire, with army tents visible in the background.

Founded by Pascal Sebah and Georges Joaillier, the studio was among the most esteemed in late nineteenth-century Istanbul, working in the wet plate collodion process and distributing its views internationally. In 1899 the firm was designated Ottoman Palace Photographers. The photograph measures approximately 21 × 27 cm, mounted on a board of approximately 28 × 35 cm.