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Source Description
This manuscript is one of a group of manuscripts created during the first years of the Bangkok dynasty illustrating a traditional court treatise describing elephants. An official at the Thai court was responsible for the Department of Elephants, which maintained royal elephants, mostly albinos, as well as commissioning treatises. The treatise opens with a series of divine elephants with characteristics based largely on Hindu mythology (fols. 3-8). The next portion of the manuscript (fols. 9-52) depicts a profuse variety of natural elephants, shown on plain backgrounds or in forest settings displaying two elephants in profile on the upper half with text in the lower. The rest is unfinished but appears to follow the same layout. The text, yellow Thai script on red ground, describes these elephants according to an elaborate typology related to Indian manuscripts on elephants.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
14825
label
Treatise on Elephants
core
obj
dtoType
manuscript
citationUrl
pageCount
3
Source metadata
id
14825
sourceUrl
contentType
manuscript
stage
normalized
title
Treatise on Elephants
description
This manuscript is one of a group of manuscripts created during the first years of the Bangkok dynasty illustrating a traditional court treatise describing elephants. An official at the Thai court was responsible for the Department of Elephants, which maintained royal elephants, mostly albinos, as well as commissioning treatises. The treatise opens with a series of divine elephants with characteristics based largely on Hindu mythology (fols. 3-8). The next portion of the manuscript (fols. 9-52) depicts a profuse variety of natural elephants, shown on plain backgrounds or in forest settings displaying two elephants in profile on the upper half with text in the lower. The rest is unfinished but appears to follow the same layout. The text, yellow Thai script on red ground, describes these elephants according to an elaborate typology related to Indian manuscripts on elephants.
provenance
Peng Seng, Bangkok; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Southeast Asian Art Collection, February 16 1963; given to Walters Art Museum, 2002.
date
1824 (Rattanakosin)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
manuscripts
imageCount
3
pageCount
3
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
dimensions
units
cm
width
12.2
height
36.5
depth
6.1
med
ink and paint on paper bound between
cul
Chinese
creator_ids
2501
collection_ids
SEA
MSS
exhibition_ids
2059
3827
dimensionsRaw
Closed manuscript: H: 4 15/16 x L: 14 3/8 x D: 2 3/8 in. (12.2 x 36.5 x 6.1 cm)
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
57fd7bc2dd63e143
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
ff11e6730a0ab8fa
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
f177d7a30ad10ebe
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no