Stucco and glass window showing floral ornamentation in a double frame of regularly spaced round and rectangular openings. In the central field, six pairs of alternating concave and convex curlicues are arranged in two rows. Every pair of curlicues, as well as the spaces between the two rows, encloses a flower. Three types of flowers can be identified: lilies, eight-petalled flowers inscribed within an eight-pointed star, and five-petalled flowers (or palmettes). The design of the latticework is laid out on two levels, with the floral ornamentation standing out against a slightly recessed, perforated background.

The latticework is preserved in its original condition and shows only a few cracks and some superficial losses around the edges and in the centre. One large crack runs diagonally through the middle of the panel (see Hamadene/Vuillermoz, SNOA 135, p. 5). The surfaces of the latticework show dust deposits, but no signs of weathering.

The window was restored in 2018. Loose pieces of glass were reattached. Missing pieces were replaced with new glass; the new pieces are incised with the date ‘2018’. A pure white plaster has been used for fixing the glass on the back of the panel; remains of the old embedding layer remain in the unrestored areas (see Hamadene/Vuillermoz, SNOA 135, pp. 2–3).

This stucco and glass window corresponds iconographically and technically to one of the standard types of qamariyya widespread in Egypt during the Ottoman period. The representation of curlicues and flowers is a recurring motif of Islamic stucco and glass windows. Compositions can be found with arrangements of convex and concave curlicues, in one or more rows, accompanied by different types of flowers. Similar compositions are to be found in several of the collections studied (IG_10, IG_15, IG_41, IG_169, IG_257) and are prominently depicted in Arthur Melville’s painting An Arab Interior of 1881 (IG_93). Common to all windows of this type is the symmetrical distribution of curlicues and flowers that create a repeating pattern.

The window discussed here is composed of two vertical rows of curlicues, as the windows of the same type held at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (IG_41), The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (IG_169), and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (ME.1-2005).

The window forms part of a group of four qamariyyāt acquired by the French industrialist and art collector Émile Étienne Guimet (1836–1918). All four windows became part of the collection of the Musée Guimet, founded in Lyon in 1879, and are today conserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts (IG_254, IG_255) and the Musée des Confluences (IG_256, IG_257) in Lyon. Whereas IG_255 and IG_256 represent late versions of the flowers in a vase motif, this qamariyya as well as IG_257 (held at the Musée des Confluences) feature identical compositions of curlicues and flowers.

Unfortunately, there is no information on the place of acquisition, the date, or the provenance of this and the other three windows of the group. The state of preservation of the stucco grille of this window, in particular the lack of weathering, suggests that it has never been exposed to the outside environment. We therefore assume that it has never been part of a historic building in the Islamic world, but was produced specifically for the flourishing art market in the late 19th century and for use in the Arab-style interiors of Western collectors. Chemical analysis of five pieces of colourless glass from the two windows preserved at the Musée des Confluences (IG_256, IG-257) reveal that the glass was made from relatively pure raw materials (soda, lime, silica), corroborating production in the late 19th century.

Mentioned in:

• Salima et al 2019, pp. 73, 74.

• Giese/Keller/Wolf 2023.