On May 9, 2019, nine members of the exhibitions and installations team at the Royal Textile Museum of Bhutan visited the Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection as part of their itinerary to view Thailand’s notable textile and heritage collections. Wipawee Tiyawes, textile curator at Tilleke & Gibbins, first presented an overview of the collection, storage, maintenance, and display procedures, then led the group on a tour of the textile storage room and the textile wall displays on all seven floors of Tilleke & Gibbins’ office in Bangkok.
The storage room adheres to accepted standards for handling and maintaining a textile collection. It is windowless (as sunlight can damage the textiles), is illuminated by LED lighting, is temperature- and humidity-controlled, and has an air filtration system as well as fire suppression mechanisms. It is equipped with a special freezer (for killing bugs and eggs on newly acquired pieces), storage trays that accommodate 20–30 textiles each, and materials such as acid free tissue paper and Mylar, which are used for safely storing the textiles. The visiting experts noted that these practices largely align with those in place at the Royal Textile Museum of Bhutan.
The Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection is dedicated to gathering, displaying, and preserving textiles from Thailand and the region. Its pieces are shown on a rotating basis on the walls of the Tilleke & Gibbins offices in Bangkok. They have been loaned to both local and international exhibitions and can also be viewed by individual scholars and are available for educational events such as lectures and special activities.
Besides the Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection, the delegation from the Royal Textile Museum of Bhutan also arranged visits to the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, the Jim Thompson Art Center, and the National Museum.
