Sri Lanka
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of 90 objects from Sri Lanka, which date from 1871 to 1994. This collection includes metal trays, brass and decorative containers, masks, models and toys, watch stands, knives, sleeping mats, bronze Buddha statues, manuscripts and ornaments. The largest single acquisition, of 19 objects, came from the Ceylon Committee, which was represented at the 1888 Glasgow International Exhibition. There are more than 20 model boats in the collection, including a model of a Singhalese canoe donated by James B Smith in 1871, the earliest acquisition to the collection. A small collection of decorative art brought back from Sri Lanka by Alexander Reid, a Scots tea planter, was donated by Mrs John Baird in 1928. The collection also boasts 15 striking carved and painted traditional dance masks, the earliest of which are four kolam masks purchased in 1909 from Morrison, Dick and McCullock’s of Glasgow. The collection further contains four contemporary Naga Rasa masks, which were purchased from Robert Fitzsimons, and four good-quality souvenir masks donated by John Doyle. Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon before 1972, is an island and sovereign state located off the southern coast of India.
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