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Show TH PAPE MOULD E MOULD O SOUTHER SIA used in Southern Siam for formin sheets of paper are constructed so that the pape made thereon is long and narrow in shape, conformin to the character of Siamese books. The most commo width of the paper is about sixteen inches, but it is no unusual to find Siamese manuscripts as wide as twentyseven inches. The two moulds given to me by the Ty Niltongkum family while visiting their Bangsom millar capable of making sheets of paper measuring sixteen b sixty inches and sixteen by seventy-nine inches, respectively. These moulds had been employed in the fabrication of paper for books used by the temple priests,als for account books in every day use by the Chinese an native merchants of Siam The frames of the moulds are made of teak (Zecton grandis,Linn.£)o the family Verbenaceae The fourstrip measureabout three-quarters of an inchin thickness an one and one-half inches in breadth, the frame held to gether by teak pegs and wedges. The cloth, upon whic the paper is actually formed, is woven by hand in Siam the material being pure cotton (Gossypiun herbaceun ) heavily starched with rice flour. This cloth (see specime overleaf) has from twelve to twenty-two threads to th inch,and the common width in which the cloth is wove is approximately seventeen inches,a sufficient width fo fully two-thirds of the moulds used in Southern Siam Digitalimage© 2004 Marriott Library, University of tah. Alrights reserved |
