The left part of this fine and detailed pencil drawing by the French architect Jules Bourgoin (1838–1908) shows part of a stucco and glass window with the motif of a vase of flowers. The vase, within a pointed arch, holds four different kinds of stylized flowers (carnations, lilies, roses) and is flanked by tulips on both sides. The cartouche above the arch has an Islamic inscription, its calligraphy in naskh script, with the first statement of the shahādah. Bourgoin concentrated on the left half of this symmetrical window, executing in their entirety the vase, the central flower, and the inscription. In the cartouche, Bourgoin indicated the perforations in the stucco panel with many small dots.

In this drawing, Bourgoin depicted a stucco and glass window with a cartouche above the arch that bears an Islamic inscription giving the first statement of the shahādah: ‘lā ʾilāha ʾillā Allāh’ (‘There is no god but God’, Quran, Surah 37:35 and Surah 47:19).
The Armenian Orientalist painter and photographer G. (probably Gabriel) Lekegian (active c.1880–1920) captured a stucco and glass window with the same motif as depicted by Bourgoin, in two black-and-white photographs. One of the photographs shows a stucco and glass window portrayed in isolation like a ‘still-life’ (IG_480), devoid of architectural context. The other photograph (IG_481) was taken in the ruined Fatimid Mosque of al-Hakim in Cairo that became the provisional seat for the future Museum of Arab Art (Musée d’art arabe), later the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) (Herz, 1895, pp. II–III, and Herz, 1902, p. 47). In Lekegian’s photographs, as well as in Bourgoin’s drawing, stucco and glass windows are displayed removed from their original architectural context.
The collection of the museum in Cairo seems to have been well known and accessible to European artists and architects such as Lekegian and Bourgoin. A window with the motif of a vase of flowers, as seen in the photograph by Lekegian and drawing by Bourgoin, has been preserved to this day in the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Cairo (387/1-287/2).
Bourgoin’s great interest in stucco and glass windows is evident in his intensive exploration of this architectural element, as is witnessed, for example, in his publication Les Arts arabes (1867–1873, p. 92, IG_88) and in several drawings held at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris (such as EBA7900-0313, EBA7900-0272, EBA7900-0274, and EBA7900-0315). A further very detailed depiction of a stucco and glass window, in this case a window with a stylized-architecture motif, can be seen in another pencil drawing by Bourgoin (IG_462).