Book illustration in James Augustus St John, Oriental Album, 1848. The wood engraving shows a mashrabiyya of a house in Cairo. A woman drops a little cloth to her admirer standing under the window. The stucco and glass windows in the upper part of the mashrabiyya show a big flower and star ornament.

Following a trip to Egypt in 1832–34, the English journalist James Augustus St John published his Oriental Album. Characters, Costumes and Modes of Life in the Valley of the Nile in 1848. It was illustrated by designs taken on the spot by Émile Prisse d’Avennes, as is specified on the title page. One of the illustrations shows a mashrabiyya in Cairo with integrated stucco and glass windows. The text briefly describes the mashrabiyya as an architectural element, without mentioning the stucco and glass windows (St John, 1848, p. 7).
Apart from the general views in the Déscription de l’Égypte (Etat Moderne I, 1809, pls 54–56) and a façade elevation published by Pascal Coste in 1837 (IG_69), this is the oldest detailed illustration of a mashrabiyya with stucco and glass windows. Although Prisse d’Avennes drew the view on site, the stucco and glass windows are very freely rendered and do not depict either the typical motifs or the technique used. Apparently, Prisse d’Avennes studied the window’s texture and technique in detail only later, on his second journey to Egypt, which enabled him to make his precise drawings and illustrations (IG_30, IG_31, IG_32, IG_42, IG_42, IG_86).