The attribution of two items from the collection of D.G. Messerschmidt in the museum collection of the MAE RAS

Abstract

Dr. Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt by decree of Peter the Great undertook a seven-year journey (1719–1727) to Siberia with the aim of comprehensive scientific study of the region. The Siberian collections including a collection of antiquities entered the Museum in 1728. Some of the collections of D.G. Messerschmidt were damaged in the fire of the Kunstkamera in 1747, the remaining ones were redistributed to different museums. At present time the drawings from Messerschmidt’s work “Sibiria perlustrata” and a catalog of watercolor drawings of the artifacts stored in the Kunstkammer made at the Academy of Sciences in the 1730s–1740s are used as sources for the study of archaeological objects. The article discusses the experience of attribution of two items from the collection of D.G. Messerschmidt. The analysis of the images in Messerschmidt’s work “Sibiria perlustrata” and catalog 1730–1740 during the preparation of the exhibition “Kunstkamera of Peter the Great, or the Tower of Knowledge” were used as a proxy sources to select the closest archaeological artifacts to the Messerschmidt originals. Among others are two small Turkic stirrups from the collection MAE No 1575. The collection consists of undocumented artifacts received by MAE in different time. Size, visual similarity and other characteristics made it possible to intensifier the stirrups from the collection MAE No 1575 as belonging to the Messerschmidt collection.