Sehzade Camii, Constantinople

The drawings were made by Lewis Vulliamy, a British architect who had been articled to Sir Robert Smirke. Vulliamy had been awarded the Royal Academy's travelling studentship in 1818, and he went abroad for four years, mainly to Italy, also to Greece and Turkey. On his return he set up an architectural practice, working in a variety of historical revival styles; his pupils included Owen Jones. Vulliamy became a conventional architect, who built houses and villas in the current restrained classical manner, and there is no evidence that he incorporated any Islamic ideas into his work. Nevertheless, unconventionally, he did draw this delicate series of mosques, including lesser-known ones, and he seems to have used the latest scientific instrument in order to do so. It is very possible that his pupil Owen Jones heard about Islamic architecture from his master, and about a scientific way of proto-photographic recording of design, with profound consequences for British design later in the century.