'CUSTOMS AND FASHION IN THE LEVANT': THREE PORTRAITS OF OTTOMAN OFFICIALS AND COURT DIGNITARIES
Possibly French Orientalist and Turkish Schools, Istanbul, Ottoman Turkey, 18th century and later

Opaque pigments, ink and pencil on European laid paper, the three vertical compositions studies of local fashion and officer's ranks in the Ottoman Empire, comprising a pipe bearer, wearing a tall, ribbed blue turban, pink robe and chequered blue belt, holding in one hand a long pipe and a stand in the latter, with a fainted annotation in pencil at the bottom [...] dated 1740, mounted, glazed and framed, 24cm x 16.5cm excluding the frame; and two similar standing portraits of a courtly stick bearer (caption: Eli Alti) and of an Aghasi (general officer, page) serving a Pasha (Lord, a title similar to that of Bey and conferred on a personal basis on senior civil officials and military officers), the latter numbered on the bottom left '106', mounted, glazed and framed, the largest 29cm x 19.5cm excluding the frame.

Provenance: Massol, Hotel Drouot-Richelieu Paris, 18 September 2015, lot 153