The Yousef Zoughbi photographic catalogue showcases his carved mother of pearl items produced in Bethlehem in the first half of the twentieth century.  This chapter focuses on three case studies of commissions, a work for King Faroukh in Egypt, another for Mussolini in Italy and third for the US government, now held in Washington DC. It addresses each of these through the complex stylistic encoding of different aesthetics, considering the complexities of various visualities employed and their associations with different modes of nation-building.