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IG_439: Record Drawing of Stained Glass
(GBR_London_VAM_IG_439)

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Title

Stucco and glass windows in the house of Dr. Abbott

Type of Object
Dimensions
16.5 x 22.2 cm
Artist / Producer
Dating
c. 1845
Location
Inventory Number
E.3708-1938
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 seven stucco and glass windows. Four rectangular windows can be seen in the lower row and three square windows in the upper. Only five of the seven windows are completely drawn and coloured. The two windows on the right-hand side were only sketched in fine pencil outlines as their motifs are the mirror image of those on the left-hand side.
The two central windows show the motif of a cypress tree entwined by a tendril with blossoms; that on the right is less elaborate. These windows are flanked on each side by a window with the motif of a vase of flowers in a medallion and a lower section featuring two flower-star ornaments.
The central square window in the upper part of Wild’s drawing shows geometric ornament and is flanked by windows showing flowers in a quatrefoil. The colours green, purple, and pink predominate in all the windows, such that they form a harmonious ensemble. Wild has added a very fine pencil note in the upper right corner of the drawing.

Iconclass Code
25G3(CYPRESS) · trees: cypress
41A6711 · flowers in a vase
48A981 · ornament ~ geometric motifs
48A9815 · ornament ~ starforms
48A98312 · tendrils ~ ornament
Iconclass Keywords
Inscription

Mr. Abbot / vol. II

Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

Technique

Pencil and watercolour on paper.

History

Research

The annotation in Wild’s drawing, ‘M. Abbot’, refers to Dr Henry William Charles Abbott (1812–1859), who was a British physician and collector of Egyptian antiquities. He ‘went to Egypt when quite a young man, on a scientific expedition, under the auspices of the British government’ and was ‘for nearly thirty years the only resident English physician in Cairo’ (Littell, 1859, p. 592). He lived in a ‘house in Cairo, filled with his splendid collection’: ‘He began the practice of collecting antiquities as an amusement, and it at length became a passion, so that he devoted his entire surplus income to the museum which he gathered around him, and which became at length one of the finest in the world.’ (Littell, 1859, p. 592). Today, some of the objects of the Abbott Collection are held in the Brooklyn Museum in New York; stucco and glass windows are not among them however. Wild treated windows associated with the name Abbott in several other drawings (IG_438, IG_444, IG_445, IG_447).

Dating
c. 1845
Period
1844 – 1847
Related Locations
Place of Manufacture

Provenance

Owner
Previous Owner

Elizabeth H.M. Wild

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Littell, E. (1859). Littell’s Living Age. Boston: Littell, Son, and Company.

Image Information

Name of Image
GBR_London_VAM_IG_439
Credits
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Link to the original photo

Citation suggestion

Tabbal, S. (2024). Stucco and glass windows in the house of Dr. Abbott. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved December 5, 2025 from https://www.vitrosearch.ch/objects/2713283.

Record Information

Reference Number
IG_439