Looking into the batik

So how did these cultural assimilations leave their traces in batik? During the early 20th century, most of the workshop owners in Pekalongan were of Indo-European or Peranakan-Chinese descent. Because batik workshops frequently signed their creations during this era, it was easy to determine the provenance of these batiks. The majority of the batik was signed on the upper left side of the kepala(head) - where the centerpiece is usually drawn. What else can I say? The 'head' is, indeed, always the center of attention.

This batik is one of the batiks produced between 1890 and 1920. The years between 1900-1910 marked the peak of European influences in batik (possibly heavily inspired by the popular Art Nouveau style at the time), and famous makers such as Lien Metzelaar, Van Zuylen, Simonet, and J. Jans emerged between 1890 and 1920. As people of mixed descent (whether by blood or through marriage) and from a society living in the Dutch East Indies era, the majority of these batik workshops incorporated the North-coast batik style into their designs.

This particular batik is most likely to be produced in Pekalongan, Java (written on the label above) - designed as a sarong, usually divided as kepala (head), badan (body), papan (the edges of the kepala), and seret (the edge along the selvedge of the batik) as seen in fig. 2. Now we will take a closer look at the kepala.