Framed plaster model of a section of a wall of the Alhambra Palace, Granada, painted and gilded. Three domed windows at the centre with fretwork patterns, the two outer ones echoing a design from the coat of arms of the Nasrids. There is a horizontal strip of repeated phrases from the Qur'an just below the top.
The artist who made this piece restored the Alhambra, and was responsible for the repainting of the walls. There is a maker's label on the reverse, which reads, in translation: 'Arabesque details copied from the Palace of the Alhambra. Collection of models made by the restorer of the Palace, Don Rafael Contreras. With geometric reductions.'
Another label, on the reverse, reads: 'A. T. Burt, Carver, Gilder & Picture Frame Maker. 4 Crown Hill, Croydon. Trade supplied with all kinds of moulding. Birds & Animals preserved and mounted'.
This object may have been purchased at the Alhambra Palace in 1884, when Frederick John Horniman signed the visitors' book there.
