Papan & Seret

When looking at the whole batik, you will notice some sort of ‘border’ dividing the kepala and badan part of the batik. The two straight lines with decorative motifs next to the kepala are known as papan. The thicker border around the edges of the batik is known as the pinggir.

The big and wavy edge on the bottom is called a booh. This booh is an example of a European influence. It was inspired by European drawings and handicrafts of flowers and traditional European lace. The booh became bigger and more lace-like at the beginning of the 20th century.

Seret is the very small edge, right on the selvedge. It usually contains small lines or gigi belang.

The style of these papan and seret was popular and often reproduced by other batik craftsmen. Similar elements can be seen on other batiks by Jans, like the ones kept within the Javanese batik collections of King Chulalongkorn of Siam, (as featured in the exhibition and book The Royal Treasure: The Javanese Batik Collection of King Chulalongkorn of Siam), or in TM-1256-8 (see fig. 1).