Thai Accordion Book

This month's feature is a Thai accordion book from 1853. It is numbered in the Dard Hunter Collection as #1989.2043. The contents of the book detail a treaty between Thailand and France, which was eventually signed and passed in 1856 between the Thai monarch Rama IV and a French ambassador under Louis Charles de Montigny. The treaty addresses free trade and protection for French missionaries and scientists; among the items is a list of customs duties for imported items, including shark fins and pangolin skin. Accordion books in Thailand are called samut khoi, and their usage dates back to the 1300s. These books were used primarily for works of literature and legal documents, such as this treaty. It was believed that black pages with yellow writing were easiest to read, so important documents tended to be written in such a manner, although there are plenty of accordion books with white pages. 

Dard Hunter wrote about the creation of the unique black paper used in Thai books; his account can be found in Papermaking in Southern Siam, published in 1936. In his travels, he met with the Niltongkum family and documented their process for making paper by hand, including black paper. Some of the white paper was set aside after drying and blackened with a thin paste made from betel nut ash, which is rubbed into the paper with a soft cloth. You can see on the creases along the edges of this artifact that the black pigment has worn away with use and exposed the white fibers. 

We hope that you enjoyed this peek at our collection! We'll be back next month with another artifact. Have a great November!