The motif of this stucco and glass window consists of a flower stem with five blossoms arranged symmetrically along a central axis. The blossoms can be identified as roses. The flower is enclosed within a semicircular arch in yellow and green. Two tear-shaped leaves are set in each of the spandrels above the arch. The flower stem, the framing arch, and the spandrels are worked out in relief against a perforated background that lies 5–10mm below the surface.

Gypsum plaster; colourless glass; coloured glass (green, blue, yellow); red flashed glass

This stucco and glass window is in good condition. The plaster lattice is intact, and the glass does not show any losses or defects.

Since its acquistion by the Institut du monde arabe in 2009, the window has not been restored. There are, however, signs of earlier repairs on the front: small losses were filled with plaster whiter and finer than that of the stucco lattice. There are no signs of restoration on the back, as the stucco layer used for embedding the pieces of glass looks uniform.

From a technical and iconographic point of view, this stucco and glass window corresponds to one of the standard types of qamariyya widespread in Egypt during the Ottoman period. However, the motif is much less frequent in the collections studied than, for example, flowers in a vase or the cypress tree. The Musée du Louvre in Paris holds two windows with the same motif (IG_3 and IG_168). In contrast to the window discussed here, the flower stems in the Louvre examples are set in medallion-like frames reminiscent of the Ottoman Baroque style.

According to the museum records, the window was acquired by the Institut du monde arabe (IMA) in 2009 from the Alexis Renard Art gallery in Paris. Neither the IMA nor the art gallery holds any information regarding the provenance and date of the window. However, the examination of the window has provided some clues: the motif and the manufacturing technique, on the one hand, suggest that the window was made in an Egyptian workshop (see Technique). The nature of the glass used in the manufacture of the window, on the other hand, provides indirect information on the age of the window: the pieces of glass show the characteristics of cylinder-blown sheet glass, a technique that was uncommon in the Islamic world at that time and more commonly used in Europe. According to the Hungarian architect Max Herz (1856–1819), sheet glass was imported to Egypt from Europe from the 19th century, because local sheet-glass production had come to a standstill (Herz, 1902, p. 53).