ART OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN TEXTILES: THE TILLEKE & GIBBINS COLLECTION
Linda S. McIntosh

As markers of identity and status of their producers’ cultures, the textiles of Southeast Asia are often viewed as ethnographic objects. Hand-weavings function as clothing, household accessories, and religious objects and have important roles in major life events. Created with a myriad of materials and techniques and a selection of colors and motifs, this region’s weavings are also highly sophisticated works of art that would not exist without their producers’ imagination and skills. Tilleke & Gibbins International, a law firm in Bangkok, Thailand, began acquiring textiles from the region in 1987, formally establishing its collection a few years later.

Art of Southeast Asian Textiles: The Tilleke & Gibbins Collection highlights museum-quality textiles from various cultures of this region. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the publication focuses on hand-woven and hand-adorned cloth produced by ethnic groups in Thailand and neighboring countries, including Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Social, political, and economic ties linked the cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia to ones in others areas, such as the island cultures of the region, resulting in the exchange of cloth. Some textile types from Indonesia and India are, thus, included in this volume. Art of Southeast Asian Textiles showcases over two hundred examples from this private collection, presented with the same intention as the law firm’s purpose to build a collection: textiles as art.