tribaltextiles.info

Some brief notes on this nice book that I picked up a copy of recently.

Title: Art of Southeast Asian Textiles: The Tilleke and Gibbins Collection.
Author: Linda S McIntosh
Publisher: Serindia
312 pages
Oversized art book format, full color, glossary, bibliography, index.

This is the first publication (as far as I know) of that deals with the well-known collection of Mainland Southeast Asian textiles of the Tilleke and Gibbins law firm in Bangkok. Their textiles are reproduced in color, high resolution, nice printing, with some detail shots.

The major part of the collection is Tai (Daic) textiles from Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, with many beautiful supplementary weft textiles and some ikat types too. There is also a good showing of Khmer ikats from Cambodia, and some textiles from Burma (Naga etc).

The strength of the book is in the photography and color reproduction, which makes it probably the best available on the Tai groups in terms of illustrations. Captions are well-written and informative, though the depth they can offer is necessarily limited given the wide scope of the collection. For more ethnographic detail one could refer to Patricia Cheesman's book on Lao-Tai textiles, or Michael Howard's books on Daic textiles.

An attractive book, thoroughly recommended.

It's another heavy one, so don't drop it on your toes

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www.toranatribal.com

Hi Chris

Thanks very much for reminding me of this book which I was aware of when being written but not sure when published.

What a miracle the Internet is! 27th Feb you posted (from Beijing, I assume!) I went on line, found the book on Amazon.co.uk and ordered. Today, 28th Feb, in Canterbury, I have just walked in from lunch with former staff on campus and found the Amazon box in my front porch awaiting my return! Opened the box and there is this lovely book....!

I was fortunate in October 2003 to visit Tilleke & Gibbins and see the collection displayed in the T&G offices as well as sight of different items not on show but stored. Ms Wipawee Tiyawes, collection curator, very kindly rushed back to the offices from a conference to show me around before I flew out of Bangkok that night!

This book is a very special record of the collection especially as the major enthusiast and founding collector at the T&G law firm, David Lyman, has I believe now retired from T&G and Linda McIntosh, author of the book, has been 'let go' from her special position re the collection.

I can't wait to sit down with the book and enjoy it at various levels...coffee table eye candy; history of the collection; and, best of all, well researched information. I must find my way around it so that I can best use it for reference going forward.

So, thank you Chris, for using the forum for just the reason it was created!!!

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Hi Pamela, Amazon really is miraculous, especially when you live in China. I like the fact that it is now linked to quite a few of the second-hand booksellers too.

Another seller I've used a lot for textile books and who has a good "personal" service is Dennis Marquand (www.rugbooks.com). I don't think he is linked in with Amazon.

www.adall.com and www.bookfinder.com are good search engine sites for books

All this is great, though I am noticing the downside that all my old favorite bricks and mortar bookshops are closing ... can't have it every way I suppose!

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www.toranatribal.com