GOVERNOR'S PALACE, MANFALÛT.
Shewing a Window of Arab Lattice Work, similar to that of the Damascus Room in the South Kensington Museum.
The Science and Art Department has been fortunate in securing from the St. Maurice and Dr. Meymar Collections, a great many specimens which are well worth examination. The most remarkable is a complete room brought from a house in Damascus, which is fitted up in the Oriental style, and gives one a good idea of an Eastern interior. The walls are decorated in color and gold; the spaces are divided by flat pilasters; and there are recesses, or cupboards, for the reception of pottery, quaintly formed vessels, and pots of brass. Oriental carpets, octagonal tables, such as the one which ornaments the initial letter of this chapter, hookas, incense burners, and cushions furnish the apartment; while the lattice window is an excellent representation of the "Mesherabijeh," or lattice work with which we are familiar since so much has been imported by Egyptian travellers. In the upper panels of the lattice there are inserted pieces of colored glass, and, looking outwards towards the light, the effect is very pretty. The date of this room is 1756, which appears at the foot of an Arabic inscription, of which a translation is appended to the exhibit. It commences:—"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate," and concludes, "Pray, therefore, to Him morning and evening."
A number of bosses and panels, detached from their original framework, are also to be seen, and are good specimens of Saracenic design. A bedstead, with inlay of ivory and numerous small squares of glass, under which are paper flowers, is also a fair sample of native work.
SPECIMEN OF SARACENIC PANELLING OF CEDAR, EBONY, AND IVORY.
(In the South Kensington Museum.)
The illustration on page [142] is of a carved wood door from Cairo, considered by the South Kensington authorities to be of Syrian work. It shews the turned spindles, which the Arabs generally introduce into their ornamental woodwork; and the carving of the vase of flowers is a good specimen of its kind. The date is about the seventeenth century.