Chiddingstone Castle, 2020

The Daphne Bullard grant was given to the Denys Eyre Bowyer Bequest, which administers the Castle’s estate and collection, for the conservation mounting of a Tibetan ‘thangka’, a painted silk wall hanging from a Buddhist temple.

The aim of this grant was to create a bespoke case and mounting system for the thangka (Tibetan temple wall hangings) at Chiddingstone Castle, so that they could be displayed in the Buddhist Room.

Thangkas form an important part of Denys Eyre Bower’s Buddhist collection, and used to be displayed on the castle walls. Unfortunately the framing method used was actively causing damage to the thangka. Thanks to the Daphne Bullard Grant, the castle now has a display mount set up in the Buddhist Room which can be used to display the thangka collection easily, efficiently, and in a non-damaging way.

The display mount enabled the team to present a key part of Denys Eyre Bower’s collection, whilst still paying respect to the original context of the thangka as sacred Tibetan Buddhist objects. The method of display allows the thangka to ‘hang’ on the wall as it would in its original temple setting. The thangka is attached using colour-matched magnets to a magnetic backboard covered with red fabric, reflecting the original setting of a Tibetan Buddhist temple. The case has been designed to cause as little distraction from the thangka as possible. It has been made to be ‘invisible’, with the fittings almost entirely in clear Perspex.

The mount method is also designed so that the thangka can easily be rotated in-house by Castle staff. Because the thangka are only attached using magnets, the backs of them can still be studied. Different textiles are used, and there are often inscriptions on the reverse of the central painted cotton panel. On the reverse of one the thangka a handprint left from the consecration ceremony can still be seen in red pigment.