{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1223685"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1223685/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PE3261/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PE3261/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PE3261","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1223685/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1223685","accessionNumber":"1020-1884","objectType":"Relief","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Plaster cast of a medallion carved with an arabesque design. When it was acquired, this object was originally a set with four spandrels, of which only A remains in the V&amp;A. The other 3 spandrels in the set were deaccessioned in the 1930s.\r\n\r\nThe original ornament from which this was cast was located above the smaller entrance doorway of the Wikala (caravanserai) of Sultan Qa’itbay, near the mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo, built in 1477. Plaster casts from a variety of historic monuments across Cairo, especially those built during the reign of Sultan Qa’itbay (r.1468-96), were made to decorate the ‘maison arabe’ of the French aristocrat, the Comte Gaston de St Maurice (1831-1905), which was built for him between 1872 and 1879. \r\n\r\nSt Maurice lived in Cairo for twenty years, serving as equerry to the Khedive (Ottoman governor) of Egypt. During that period, he accumulated a large collection of historic objects from Islamic Egypt, dating especially from the 14th-16th centuries but also including some 19th-century objects. The V&A acquired about 200 objects from St Maurice collection in 1884. ","physicalDescription":"Plaster cast of circular panel relief with arabesque design","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Plaster","id":"AAT14922"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Casting","id":"AAT53104"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Casting ","categories":[{"text":"Plaster Cast","id":"THES270451"},{"text":"Africa","id":"THES49019"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2025PE3261"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES344808"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES344808"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Relief","id":"AAT53622"}],[{"text":"Relief","id":"AAT53622"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Cairo","id":"x28776"},"association":{"text":"cast","id":"x32615"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1872-1879","earliest":"1872-01-01","latest":"1879-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"1020-1884","id":"O164648"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"1020-1884","id":"O1525647"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"170","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Thickness","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought from the collection of Gaston de Saint-Maurice (1831-1905) in 1884. Saint-Maurice displayed his extensive art collection at the 1878 Paris exhibition, in a gallery entitled L'Egypte des Khalifes. This was part of an official sequence of displays celebrating the history of Egypt, presented by the Egyptian state at this international event. Saint-Maurice held a position at the Khedival court, and had lived in Cairo in 1868-1878. Following the exhibition, Saint-Maurice offered his collection for sale to the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A).\n\nPlaster casts were installed in the Maison Arabe built for St Maurice between 1872 and 1879 by the French architect Ambroise Baudry (1838-1906), who designed several houses for prominent French ex-patriates in Egypt.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Plaster cast of a roundel, of the original above the smaller doorway of the Wikala (caravanserai) of Sultan Qa’itbay, near the mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo, Saracenic, built 1477. Cast in 1872-1879","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington Museum acquired during the Year 1884.</u> London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1885. pp. 97"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Mercedes Volait, <u>Maisons de France au Caire: le remploi de grans décors mamelouks et ottomans dans une architecture modernes</u> (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientales, 2012)"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"de Saint-Maurice, Gaston","id":"C4450"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[{"text":"Paris International Exhibition, 1878 (1878)","id":"V165"}],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1020:1-1884","1020:2-1884"],"accessionNumberNum":"1020","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1884,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Previous number","id":"THES51695"},"number":"TN.296-2011"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","panel relief [1]","panel relief [2]","panel relief [3]","panel relief [4]"],"assets":["2025PK7611"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-03","recordCreationDate":"2011-06-20","availableToBook":false}}