Commodified Oriental props mark villains as Eastern-inflected monsters.

Evidence

Dracula holds a Moroccan lantern in his hand, a detail that is not incidental. Transylvania is a former Ottoman territory, and Dracula, as discussed earlier, is a hybrid monster with Turkish blood coursing through his veins. The “Eastern” lantern is a familiar visual trope, appearing in numerous writings, paintings, advertisements, movies, and other forms of cultural production. Oriental lanterns are one of the commodities inspired by the East and fashionable in Europe and North America that gained popularity during Stoker’s time. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 660

Categorization

• XREF: Ties the visual manufacture of the Muslim monster to consumer culture - the lantern as cheap material gateway to ‘the Orient’; connects to your point about image preceding contact, now via material commodities.
• ADDENDUM: Relates to ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ in that both show Orientalist commodities (lanterns, slippers) exporting an imagined East to Western homes, though dress is the angle there.