Description and research notes
Original 1901 illustrated invoice from Philibin & Vve. Barrot, the prominent Cairo ironmongery and hardware firm founded in 1871. The masthead is printed in a pale blue-grey Art Nouveau style, featuring an ornamental banner with PHILIBIN & Vve. BARROT in bold serif capitals framed by curling acanthus leaves and floral sprays. At left appears a decorative shield listing the firm's specialties—grand assortiment de quincaillerie, ferronnerie, serrurerie, and outils et articles de ménage—accompanied by a full Arabic translation in fine Khedivial-era type. The imprint 'Alex., Imp. Générale A. Mourès & Cie 8199' at the lower margin identifies one of Egypt's leading commercial lithographers.
The invoice is printed on lightly toned lined ledger stock with vertical blue accounting rules and an open central panel for handwritten entries. The date '7/6/1901' is written in black fountain-pen ink beneath the masthead. Red pencil annotations at the top—ledger number 353 and the large diagonal '17'—reflect internal filing and cross-referencing practices common in early municipal and commercial accounting.
The body records the sale of four hardware items described as '4 Seaux vernisés,' with individual price notes and a large diagonal signature confirming receipt of payment. Additional Arabic annotations in brown and black fountain-pen ink appear in the lower section, demonstrating the bilingual bookkeeping characteristic of Cairo's mixed French–Arabic commercial environment. Settlement initials and date confirmations appear at the lower left, with visible ink feathering from period dip-pen usage.
Philibin & Vve. Barrot served as one of Cairo's premier hardware and ironmongery houses at the turn of the century, supplying imported European tools, household goods, fittings, locksmith items, and construction ironware throughout the rapidly growing capital. Their invoices and catalogues reflect the city's cosmopolitan retail sector, where French commercial vocabulary, Arabic accounting notation, and European graphic styles blended seamlessly in everyday business operations.
Art Nouveau illustrated invoices printed by A. Mourès & Cie are extremely scarce today. Most were discarded after settlement, reduced to fragments, or lost during business relocations and urban redevelopment. This 1901 example—printed with a fully intact ornamental masthead, bilingual commercial shield, Mourès lithographic imprint, and complete manuscript entries—stands as one of the finest surviving documents of Cairo's pre-Protectorate hardware trade and early 20th-century commercial design.