The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Museum

The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Museum is located in Surat’s Science Centre. It was established in 1890 by the then collector of Surat, Mr Winchester. It used to be a small museum with a few exhibits. A good response to an exhibition in 1952 led the authorities to develop the museum further, and they decided to move it to Chowk Bazaar. In 1957, it was renamed after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the ‘Iron Man of India’. Since the museum was located near the river Tapi, floods in the following years led to the destruction of many artefacts. Thus, in 2009, it was relocated once again to the Science Centre, with the help of generous donations and gifts from various patrons.

The museum has various galleries that hold porcelain and art collections, stamps, arms, wooden objects, textiles and zari work in gold. The porcelain gallery includes pieces in Japanese, British, and Chinese styles, such as a Chinese tea set with a dragon motif from the eighteenth century. The bronze and copper art include sculptures of brahmanical deities and ivory objects such as the Chinese game mahjong (which dates back to the eighteenth century). There is a collection of Jain manuscripts from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries rendered on paper, palm leaf and copper. The collection also includes Indian coinage, miniature paintings, pots and jars, paintings and various kinds of ornaments.