Title
Skirt cloth (steamships)
Year/Period
c. 1920
Region
Pekalongan, Northern Java
Material
Dimension
Object size: 250.5 x 104.5 cm
Accession No.
2013-00404
Collection of
This skirt cloth or kain panjang is whimsically designed with rows of steamships – a popular theme in the Dutch East Indies in the 1920s and 30s. this particular piece is hand drawn and of a higher standard but as a comparison, witness the nearly identically designed (1993-00242) stamp printed (batik cap) kain panjang also in the ACM’s collection.The hull of the ship on this cloth is emblazoned “Krakatau - Amsteerdam”. This is very likely a reference to the S.S. Krakatau, a large passenger liner which plied the route between Batavia and Amsterdam from 1912 to 1930. The Krakatau was part of the government run Netherlands Royal Mail Line or Stoormvaart Maatshappij Nederland.
