Restoration of Samurai armour thanks to the Common Good Fund
ANGUSalive are delighted to share that they been awarded £21,355 from the Angus Council Common Good Fund to conserve Samurai armour held in the Angus collection.
The work to the Samurai armour will be undertaken by Tuula Pardoe and Will Murray from The Scottish Conservation Studio. Work will include using moisture to straighten and relax the damaged areas of the blue and brown silk fabric, cutting dyed net to fit over the damaged areas of the silk and sewing it in place for protection. The chainmail will also be sewn into its original position with areas of loss and broken seams being repaired.
In January 2024 ANGUSalive embarked on a Museums Galleries Scotland funded project to fully catalogue and research the historic Angus World Cultures collection. This will culminate in August 2025 with an exhibition at Montrose Museum, an educational resource for local schools about Angus and the slave trade and a programme of events to engage with the community. Work is underway working to decolonise the collections, open up dialogue with the global majority and join wider conversations in the museum sector about the legacies of colonialism.
Through this vital research rare and unique objects from around the world have been uncovered including a suit of Samurai armour and an East India Company officer’s uniform. These beautiful but contentious objects are an integral part of the upcoming exhibition ‘Perspectives: Collecting the World’ at Montrose Museum but are fragile and in an advanced state of decay.
Due to the complexity of the work required the Samurai armour will not be on display until the beginning of October. However, ‘Perspectives: Collecting the World’ is an evolving exhibition, and the armour will be on display for the full run at Forfar Meffan Museum and Art Gallery from 23 January to 20 April 2026 along with more unseen objects and narratives.
Emma Gilliland, ANGUSalive Museums & Galleries Collections Lead said: “We are so grateful for this funding award to conserve this special object and allow other people to see it safely.
“Montrose Museum is one of the first purpose built museums in Scotland. While the museum collections are vast, the stories told are predominantly that of white middle class and aristocratic men, which has the potential to alienate vast swathes of our local community.
“This project is already increasing awareness of the museum and the positive contribution it can make not just locally, but nationally and internationally, attracting visitors to Angus. We hope that this project will help people feel that their local museum has something for them too and is not an elitist or exclusionary institution.”
You can find out more about the World Cultures collection at www.angusalive.scot/museums-galleries/world-cultures-collection