Research & Article

In February 2015, three documents rolled up in a canister in the storerooms of the Dresden State Art Collections were identifi ed as having originated from Siam. Two of the documents are pictorial scrolls. The larger, almost four metres long, is an ink drawing of a procession. The other is a smaller and more colourful depiction of the same scene. The third document, a three-page text in Dutch, begins: “Annotation concerning the place where the King of Siam was cremated, who had assumed the name of pra throng than, that means God of Wisdom, and had died on 5 February and been cremated on 26 December 1704.