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IG_436: Record Drawing of Stained Glass
(GBR_London_VAM_IG_436)

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Title

Stucco and glass windows in the house of Sheikh al-ʿAbbasi al-Mahdi

Type of Object
Artist / Producer
Dating
1847
Location
Inventory Number
E.3717-1938
Research Project
Author and Date of Entry
Sarah Tabbal 2024; Francine Giese 2025

Iconography

Description

This pencil and watercolour drawing by the British architect James William Wild (1814–1892) shows three stucco and glass windows with geometric motifs. The window on the left consists of two parts, framed by ribbon ornament: the larger lower area is ornamented with eight-pointed stars in blue and red, and above there is a rectangle with three stylized blossoms; the colours blue, red, and yellow predominate, and some smaller pieces of glass are in green. The centre window has geometric ornament, also in blue, yellow, green, and red; in the cartouche above, the artist may have attempted to trace an Arabic script in yellow. The window on the right-hand side shows delicate ornament in yellow, red, and blue, consisting of alternating yellow and blue eight-pointed stars surrounded by red squares. Wild has added pencil notes in the upper left corner of the drawing and below the central window that are barely legible.

Iconclass Code
48A981 · ornament ~ geometric motifs
48A9815 · ornament ~ starforms
Iconclass Keywords
Inscription

window of the mandarah Bayt. Sheikh Mahdee (in the upper left corner of the drawing)
This large glass [...] / [has a low?] effect and does not / seem to retain the plaster / ribs as well as the smaller window (below the central window)

Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

Technique

Pencil and watercolour on paper.

History

Research

The stucco and glass window on the left side in Wild's drawing corresponds to a window that the British Orientalist painter Frank Dillon (1832–1908) depicts within a niche on the left-hand side in his watercolour Recess in the Reception Room in the House of the Mufti Sheikh el Mahadi, Cairo (c. 1873, IG_99). The Swiss draughtsman and architect Theodor Zeerleder (1820–1868), who spent several months in Cairo in 1848 and 1850, depicted part of the same window in one of his pencil and watercolour drawings (IG_473).

Wild added a pencil note in the upper left corner of the drawing indicating that the stucco and glass window illustrated was located in the ‘House of the Mufti’ in Cairo – so named because it was owned by the supreme mufti of Egypt, Sheikh al-ʿAbbasi al-Mahdi (1827–1897) between 1847 and 1886 (Llewellyn, 1998, p. 154). Several drawings made by Wild in the 1840s bear witness to his intensive study of stucco and glass windows in Cairo; they are held today in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Wild treated windows located in this Cairene house in two other drawings (IG_437, IG_446).

Dating
1847
Related Locations
Place of Manufacture

Provenance

Owner
Victoria and Albert Museum, Inventory Number: E.3717-1938
Previous Owner

Elizabeth H.M. Wild

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Llewellyn, B. (1998). Two Interpretations of Islamic Domestic Interiors in Cairo: J. F. Lewis and Frank Dillon. In Travellers in Egypt, ed. Paul Starkey and Janet Starkey. London and New York: Tauris, 148–56.

Image Information

Name of Image
GBR_London_VAM_IG_436
Credits
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Link to the original photo

Linked Objects and Images

Linked Objects
Stucco and glass windows in the house of Sheikh al-ʿAbbasi al-Mahdi
Stucco and glass window in the House of Sheikh al-ʿAbbasi al-Mahdi

Citation suggestion

Tabbal, S., & Giese, F. (updated) (2025). Stucco and glass windows in the house of Sheikh al-ʿAbbasi al-Mahdi. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved December 5, 2025 from https://www.vitrosearch.ch/objects/2713280.

Record Information

Reference Number
IG_436