Book: The Rudolf G. Smend Collection

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Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces: The Rudolf G. Smend Collection

Product Description
Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces contains never before published pictures illustrating the exquisite cross-section of the batik production in Java. Featuring textiles from the personal collection of gallery owner Rudolf G. Smend, historic photographs from the Hans van der Kamp Collection, and fascinating text from academic Isa Fleischmann-Heck, Batik: 75 Selected Masterpieces is a rich resource for collectors and lovers of the "golden period" of Java.

About the Author
Rudolf G. Smend is a passionate batik collector and the owner of Galerie Smend in Cologne, Germany.

Isa Fleischmann-Heck is Curator of Textiles at the German Textile Museum in Krefeld.

Maria Wronska-Friend is a well known batik expert, ethnologist and author.

Donald J. Harper is an American collector and dealer of Indonesian batik.

Book: Batik: From the Courts of Java and Sumatra

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Batik: From the Courts of Java and Sumatra

Product Description
Batik occupies a special position in Indonesia's history and culture. The extraordinary photographs of cloths and prints in this book demonstrate why batik is the stuff of textile legend. These 71 batik designs, taken from the collection of famed dealer Rudolf G. Smend, date from 1880-1930, a time still considered batik's golden age. Complementing these extraordinary cloths are 16 vintage photo prints from the Leo Haks collection, which demonstrate how batik was worn at court and in other settings.


From the Publisher
The exotic textiles of Java have intrigued the outside world for the past 150 years. Batik, the legendary fiber art of painting and dyeing fabrics using a waxing process, has been influenced by cultures as diverse as the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch, and English. Like no other book before it, Batik takes the reader on a spellbinding tour of Java, revealing batik's history, motifs, and methods of production.

Book: Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java

Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java

Product Description
The batik designs of Java's North Coast are particularly varied in both design and colour. With their fanciful, highly imaginative motifs and luminous tints, they are more immediately appealing than the sombre blue and brown batik of Central Java. It was a chance encounter in a Hong Kong antique shop that inspired photojournalist Inger McCabe Elliot to devote over three decades to assembling one of the world's finest collections, which she presented to the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art in 1991.

This volume, published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum, celebrates Elliott's gift and presents her collection. Essays by authorities on the subject examine the 82 featured batik textiles from historical, cultural and aesthetic perspectives. The essays are followed by biographies of some of the most distinguished batik designers and entrepreneurs and a descriptive catalogue of the batiks. Appendices document design formats and motifs, as well as the complete production process of North Coast batiks.

Book: "Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java"

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Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java

Product Description
The exotic textiles of Java have intrigued the outside world for the past 150 years. Batik, the legendary fiber art of painting and dyeing fabrics using a waxing process, has been influenced by cultures as diverse as the Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch, and English. Like no other book before it, Batik takes the reader on a spellbinding tour of Java, revealing batik's history, motifs, and methods of production.

About the Author
Inger McCabe Elliott, founder and president of China Seas, Inc., the award-winning fabric design firm, was born in Norway, graduated from Cornell University, and received her M.A. in history from Radcliffe College. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia as a photojournalist for publications including Newsweek and The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Stonington, Connecticut, with her husband and children.

Batik Tambal: Indonesian Fabric

The textiles presented by Batik Tambal are hand selected by Trish Hodge from a variety of locations in Indonesia. Trish has been making quilts for over thirty-five years. She has enjoyed the good fortune of combining her three great passions: textiles, travel, and teaching. She has lived in Tunisia, Syria and Indonesia where she studied and collected textiles and incorporated the motifs into her own work. She took full advantage of her recent five years of residence in Sumatra to intensively investigate Indonesian batik, culminating with her master's degree thesis, Indonesian Batik Design: Transmitter Of Culture.

She has taken instruction from a batik master in Jogyakarta where she worked side by side with his batik artisans. She has extended and enriched her palette as a textile artist by employing batik fabrics in her recent quilts.

Batik Tambal is an Indonesian term which translates to "Patches of Batik". Tambal Miring (shown below) is a traditional Indonesian batik pattern. The literal meaning of "Tambal Miring" is slanted patches of batik, but much more is implied in the term. As late as the beginning of the twentieth century certain priests in Indonesia wore patchwork jackets which were believed to have magical qualities. Indeed the batik tambal garments of the Sultan of Jogyakarta were said to have been passed down from heaven. In our own time Tambal Miring is a traditional design mode which imitates the clothing of the priests. Some of the magic undoubtedly persists.

It is a great pleasure to present the work of some of Indonesia's finest batik artists. The batik paintings make uniquely attractive wall hangings, and also lend themselves to use in wearable art, quilts, table runners, and other forms of patchwork art.