Hi j-tan

You batiks are beautiful.  How old are they we are unable to pin point directly.  However, if you know someone who knows the person's name on your batiks and able to trace their family tree, you should be able to gauge rather accurately when they are made.

Anyway, your batiks are very typical pasisir batiks from pekalongan/kedunguni in java.  These are considered Batik Cina (chinese batiks)and they are clearly done in chemical dyes.  Batiks of such nature are either handdrawn or partially handdrawn and printed.  Possibly era is during the early 1950s.

If you get the chance to find the ACM curator like Randall Ee or Peter Wee or Peter Lee, they should be able to give u a better insight.

?Rgds

thanks for the information. I did a bit of snooping around on the net, and found some interesting info...

The green batik sarong has a signature of possibly the maker on it.. Indonesian Chinese. I couldn't get the last name, but googling "Gan Tjoe"+"batik" turned up a name of "Gan Tjoe Liam".

First reference was from the book "Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java"

http://tinyurl.com/yjtutxm


The second one was from a museum dealing with antique cloths, one of them a batik sarong from 1910-1930 signed by "Gan Tjoe Liam":

http://www.yorkeantiquetextiles.com/1513.html


The artist's signature is very similar to the green one I have. Its likely the same person...

http://www.yorkeantiquetextiles.com/items/1513-8.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2736/dsc08198.jpg

[quote][i]"The hand-drawn signature of “Gan Tjoe Liam / Pekalongan” appears at the upper right corner of the kepala — one of the major pre-war batik-makers in Pekalongan (<b>died 1940</b>, van Hout, Batik: Drawn in Wax, Royal Tropical Institute, 2001, 191)."[/i][/quote]


Since the artist Gan Tjoe Liam died in 1940, that means the green one must be at least 70 years old...  o_0

Hi J_Tan

Nice batiks! Where did you buy them from and how much they cost you? Did you find out from the seller whether the batiks are fully hand drawn or partial hand drawn combine with stamping? 

I got these from a dealer in Chulia Street. Thats in downtown Penang.

There are several antique shops on chulia st area. Based on experience, prices vary; one shop will give you a Kodak Brownie camera for 1/2 the price but same condition of what another offers. It also depends where they know you're from, so don't park in front with your Singpore registered car.

For the red-grey sarong, I paid about SG$70 for it in 'Oriental Arts & Antiques'. The green one (from 1930s) I got it from Pentique Gallery. I think it went for SG$120. They both are partly handrawn I think, but certainly not machine made.

There is also a peranakan mansion museum in Church Street which has a huge collection of bateks. I'm not sure where the owner gets them.

Hi J_Tan

Thanks for sharing the infor. Have you ever tried to look for vintage batik sarongs in Malacca? There are also a lot of antique as well as batiks shops. How about Singapore? Normally roughly how much should a vintage sarong cost? 

 

It depends on a whole lot of factors; batik design (Kedungwuni? Cirebon? Pekalongan?), color design, age, artist (famous?), condition (moth holes? stains? fading? tears?), and how friendly the dealer is.

Like most antiques, someone can buy the batek real cheap in a Jakarta bazaar and sell it for many times the price in downtown Singapore/KL. Or many many many times more in New York/London.

Hi J_Tan

I have mentioned in another thread discussion that I like batik with mainly flower and a bit of butterflies or phoenix motif designs. The red and grey sarong which you had posted shares certain features which are similar to what I am trying to look out for.

Have you come across vintage sarong of such design with dark bright red colour tone for the kapala panel and a similar red in a lighter tone for the badan panel?

No I have not.

The design is circa 1940s, late 40s from a town called Pekalongan. Maybe you can ask an antique dealer to get one for you.

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