Black and white photograph showing models for three-dimensional architectural decoration against a black background. A caption on the card on which the photograph is mounted identifies them as models from the building group of the Viceroy of Egypt at the Vienna world’s fair in 1873, executed after drawings by the architect Schmoranz by Joseph Dollischek, court sculptor in Vienna (‘Modelle von der Baugruppe des Vicekönigs von Egypten am Wiener Weltausstellungsplatz 1873, ausgeführt im Auftrage des Herrn General-Commissärs Prof. Brugsch-Bey, nach Zeichnungen des Herrn Architekten Schmoranz von Jos. Dollischek k.k. Hofbildhauer in Wien’).

The centrally positioned square model can be linked to the single stucco and glass windows above the mashrabiyyāt on the front, lateral, and rear façades of the Arab dwelling in the 1873 Egyptian pavilion, which are documented photographically (IG_277, IG_457, IG_458). On the original high-resolution albumen prints showing the pavilion’s lateral façade, the design seen in the model can be clearly recognized (Niemand, 2019, Abb. 113). The panel is structured by a circle with a perforated line and a diameter of almost the height of the square. The four spandrels show strongly intertwined tendrils with foliage. The circle is also filled with radiating intertwined tendrils. They are designed with stucco, while the openings that were potentially filled with glass are not of floral form themselves (except for some palmette forms), but simply served as a background. This is different to the stucco and glass windows documented in drawings by Schmoranz himself (IG_417, IG_418).

The models show that the stucco and glass windows of the Arab dwelling were neither historical nor newly made architectural fragments brought from Cairo, but that they were produced in Vienna by Joseph Dollischek after designs by the pavilion’s architect, Schmoranz.