The design of this stucco and glass window consists of alternating rows of interlaced circles and six-petalled flowers in yellow. The symmetrically arranged ornamentation is interspersed with two vertical and two zigzag bands in blue. The motif is set in a background of colourless glass and framed by an ogee arch. Stylizised six-petalled flowers in red and light blue are set in the red-coloured spandrels above the arch. The entire motif is surrounded by a rectangular double frame decorated with blue dots.

The window is preserved in a wooden frame 45mm wide. The frame is painted brown.

This stucco and glass window is well preserved. There are only minor losses in the latticework and around the edges on the back of the stucco panel.

The design of this window differs significantly from Islamic examples, despite the symmetrical arrangement of the individual elements (circles, flowers, bands). The finely drawn circles, in particular, are reminiscent of drawings in ornament treatises from the 19th century. We therefore assume that the window was designed by a Western architect in the second half of the 19th century, when interest in Islamic ornament and stucco and glass windows was at its peak. However, the place of manufacture remains unclear. The production of the window is only partially in line with the traditional technology: While the glass pieces are fixed on the back in the traditional qamariyya style, the latticework seems to have been made using the casting technique and not cut out of a solid plaster plate. Despite these discrepancies, it cannot be ruled out that the window was produced in an Egyptian workshop according to the architect’s design. The sheet glass may have been imported from Europe, as mentioned by the Hungarian architect Max Herz (Herz, 1902, p. 53).

Owing to the lack of documentation, the original purpose of the window – be it for use in an Arab-style interior or for sale on the art market – and the date at which the window entered a museum collection are unknown. So far it can only be proven that the window formed part of the collection of the Orientalisches Museum in Vienna, founded in 1874 (from 1886 the k.k. Österreichisches Handelsmuseum). In 1907, it was transferred to the k.k. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie (today the MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna). The transfer was done on the initiative of Arthur von Scala (1845–1909), who left the k.k. Österreichisches Handelsmuseum in 1897 to become the new director of the k.k. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie (Wieninger, 2012).

Like the stylistically and technically related stucco and glass window MAK, 3607 (IG_361), this window served as a direct model for the lateral stucco and glass windows (panels 1 and 3) installed in the mashrabiyya of the Arab Room of the k.k. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie (MAK, H 3358-4, IG_264). The mashrabiyya and the stucco and glass windows were designed by the Czech architects František Schmoranz (1845–1892) and Johann Machytka (1844–1887) between 1881 and 1883. The date of manufacture of the window discussed here can therefore be further narrowed down, as it must have been created before 1883.