Description and research notes
Original 1927 commercial draft issued in Cairo by Chahine & Sbath, the well-known textile and drapery merchants located at 4 Rue Boulac. The left margin features the firm’s elaborate vertical trade header, printed in dark grey with ornamental shading and the wording Draperie Haute Nouveauté in both French and Arabic. The typography and engraved side panel are characteristic of B. Arnaud’s Lyon–Paris–Le Caire security printing, whose imprint appears along the lower margin.
The face of the draft is completed in multiple inks. The header indicates a 250-piastre amount (B.P. 250) and is written to the order of Messieurs Chahine & Sbath with the recipient’s name, Ahmed El Serafi, filled in by hand in Arabic next to his address at Rue Madabegh, Immeuble Coronel. Large sweeping Arabic entries in black and blue fountain-pen ink extend across the center panel, including commercial notations, acceptance wording, and confirmation of goods received. A diagonal pink annotation and date appear at the top edge.
A boxed blue BANQUE D’ORIENT - LE CAIRE handstamp dominates the left center, showing the bank’s clearing number 221238 and confirming the instrument’s passage through Banque d’Orient’s Cairo branch. Additional faint impressions of the same stamp appear under the manuscript entries, indicating re-inking or multiple strikes. Pencil figures and settlement arithmetic are visible at right, consistent with desk-level commercial processing.
The reverse includes a full handwritten endorsement payable to the order of Mestarban et Candiyrly, dated 22 December 1927 in flowing French cursive. Below it is a second blue ink stamp, Payez à l’ordre de la Banque d’Orient, dated 23 NOV 1927 and signed by Souki, Makarius & Co. A large ANNULÉ cancellation in violet spans the lower half, applied after settlement. Several red and blue pencil ledger numbers are written at the bottom.
The draft remains complete with full margins, intact engraved borders, and no trimming. Paper shows natural toning and light folds from office handling, but all signatures, stamps and inscriptions remain sharply legible. Banque d’Orient-endorsed drafts from the interwar period are uncommon, and examples carrying both French and Arabic commercial content from Levantine merchant houses such as Chahine & Sbath are highly desirable for the study of Egypt’s 1920s Mediterranean trading networks.