Book: The Rudolf G. Smend Collection

Click on link below image.

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

Click on the link below the image.
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: Across the Desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia

Across the Desert: Aboriginal Batik from Central Australia

Product Description
From the pioneering 1970s through the 1980s, Aboriginal women artists were experimenting with Batik, for them a new modern art form, with extraordinary results. This publication presents stunning examples from five communities by leading artists.

Book: The Woman With the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies

The Woman With the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies (Foremother Legacies)

Product Description
Nike Davies is one of the few African women known internationally in contemporary art circles. The Woman with the Artistic Brush traces her life history and illustrates the strategies developed by women to mitigate male rule. Presenting a critique of the woman's place in contemporary Yoruba society from the perspective of a woman who lived it, this book covers Nike's life from the time of her mother's death when Nike was six to the culmination of her dream in the creation, against severe societal odds, of a center for arts and culture that has over 120 members.

Along the way, The Woman with the Artistic Brush details how Nike ran away from home and joined a traveling theater group after her father tried to arrange her marriage, subsequently married and joined in the polygynous household of a noted artist from the popular Osogbo school, and finally broke clear of that situation after suffering sixteen years of domestic violence. The Woman with the Artistic Brush is another superb contribution to the Foremother Legacies series.

Book: African Batik Photo Album

African Batik Photo Album

Product Description
African Batik Photo Album Holds 90 Photos These photo albums use colorful, handmade, Adinkra batik fabrics produced by Asante artisans in Ghana. Due to the manual production process of these fabrics, our fabric designs are not duplicated. When this specific style runs out, we will post a different design on the Amazon.com web site (every few months based on supply so check for new colors/patterns). The symbol on this photo album is Adinkrahene (Chief of the Adinkra Symbols). It is a symbol of Greatness, Charisma & Leadership and is noted to have played an inspiring role in the designing of other symbols. It forms the basis of Adinkra printing.

Book: "Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java"

Click on link under image.

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.

Book: Chinese Indigo Batik Designs

Chinese Indigo Batik Designs (Dover Pictorial Archives)

Product Description
Showcasing more than 110 carefully reproduced illustrations from a rare, early collection of batik art — also known as wax-resist dyeing — this volume bursts with strong native flavor. Produced in China's remote southwestern provinces, the exquisitely detailed folk art includes traditional designs of flowers, animals, and landscapes.

Book: Indonesian Batik Designs

Indonesian Batik Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

Product Description
These stunning displays of highly stylized, often dramatic designs depict florals, geometrics, winged creatures, and other fanciful images. Ideal for immediate practical use, the handy archive will supply artists and crafters with an unusual range of designs and serve as a delightful browsing book for enthusiasts of Asian art and culture. 225 designs.