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IG_437: Record Drawing of Stained Glass
(GBR_London_VAM_IG_437)

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Title

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

Type of Object
Dimensions
25.7 x 36.6 cm
Artist / Producer
Dating
1847
Location
Inventory Number
E.3706-1938
Research Project
Author and Date of Entry
Sarah Tabbal 2024

Iconography

Description

This pencil and watercolour drawing by the British architect James William Wild (1814–1892) shows three stucco and glass windows and the cropped outline of a window on the right side of the drawing.
The two windows on the left feature delicate floral tendrils, and the colours blue, red, and yellow predominate here. The window on the right, which has only been drawn and coloured in part, shows a stylized vase with different kinds of flowers (a lily in the middle, carnations, tulips, and roses) placed on a table and flanked by two hyacinths. Below, there is a rectangular section that incorporates the motif of a cypress tree in the centre; the cypress tree is flanked on both sides by a vase with a pink carnation with a blue-violet tulip to either side. The motif of the vase of flowers can also be found in the cartouches of the surrounding frame, as can two hyacinths in the pointed arch. Wild has added several pencil notes to this drawing. The inscriptions below the windows are barely legible.

Iconclass Code
25G3(CYPRESS) · trees: cypress
25G4(PEONY) · plants and herbs: peony
25G41(CARNATION) · flowers: carnation
25G41(HYACINTH) · flowers: hyacinth
25G41(LILY) · flowers: lily
25G41(TULIP) · flowers: tulip
41A6711 · flowers in a vase
48A98312 · tendrils ~ ornament
Iconclass Keywords
Inscription

opposite to the fountain / opposite the door (?) (text in English, below the windows)
Window. Bayt. Sheikh Mahdee / mandarah (in the lower left corner of the drawing)

Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

Technique

Pencil and watercolour on paper.

History

Research

The inscription in the lower left corner of the drawing indicates that Wild drew these windows 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 stucco and glass windows located in this Cairene house in two other drawings (IG_436, IG_446).

Dating
1847
Related Locations
Place of Manufacture

Provenance

Owner
Victoria and Albert Museum, Inventory Number: E.3706-1938
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_437
Credits
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Link to the original photo

Citation suggestion

Tabbal, S. (2024). 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/2713281.

Record Information

Reference Number
IG_437