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The Thai Royal Gifts described and illustrated in this volume are deeply symbolic of the long and evolving friendship between Thailand and the United States of America. This study documents for the first time a groupe of artifacts whose meaning and significance have, until now, been inadequately understood by scholars, and sometimes even misunderstood by the recipients of the gifts themselves - the presidents and people of the United States. Yet for both Thais and Americans these gifts truly are historic, artistic, and scientific treasures,through which the Kings of Thailand represented their nations, and its alliances with America through time. The Smithsonian Institution maintains a priceless collection of nearly two thousand Thai Royal Gifts, items sent from Thailand to America through the reigns of seven Thai Kings of the Chakri Dynasty. These Thai Royal Gifts were initially given to mark treaty signings. Early sets of gifts included many valuable and highly formal items including luxurious silks, gold-encrusted vessels, traditional weapons, musical instruments, and a magnificent scale-model fleet of the Thai Royal Barges used to transport the King and his entourage. Over the years, Thai Kings continued to send traditional formal gifts but have also added books, and items from everyday life such as fish traps, tools, and mats. Royal Gifts enhanced Americans' exposure to Thai scholarship and crafts, and broadened Thailand's representation at World Expositions and at America's libraries and museums. Treasures of two nations : Thai Royal Gifts to the United States of America will interest art-, social-, and diplomatic-historians ; anthropologists, linguists, and ethnomusicologists ; students of Thai theater and culture ; and all those who will appreciate the aesthetic quality of the gift objects or the stories those objects were meant to tell.

Art objects, Thai --- Art objects --- Diplomatic gifts --- Catalogs. --- National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) --- Arts décoratifs --- Culture matérielle --- Thaïlande --- Etats-Unis --- Relations extérieures --- S31/0100 --- Diplomacy --- Diplomatic and consular service --- Gifts --- Bric-a-brac --- Objects, Art --- Objets d'art --- Art --- Decoration and ornament --- Decorative arts --- Object (Aesthetics) --- Antiques --- Thai art objects --- Indo China and South East Asia--Indo-China: general (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma) --- National Museum of Natural History/National Museum of Man --- NMNH --- Smithsonian Institution. --- United States. --- USNM --- Museum of Natural History (U.S.) --- Smithsonian Institution --- États-Unis --- Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of Natural History --- United States. National Museum of Natural History --- Arts décoratifs --- Culture matérielle --- Relations extérieures