The buketan design, comprising large bouquets of European flowers interspersed with butterflies and birds, is shown on this sarong. On the kepala (broad vertical panel) of this batik, diagonal bands of floral motifs set against fern-like fillers. The buketan is repeated on the badan (main design feature of the batik or ‘body’). Curving, fluid floral branches are juxtaposed to the geometric design, an ancient Javanese ceplok motif in the background. This batik is part of a large group donated to the museum by the descendants of three generations of female batik makers from Pekalongan. It was made by the grandmother of the donors, Nyonya Oeij Kok Sing. Nyonya Oeij Kok Sing was a second-generation batik maker in Pekalongan. She began to produce high quality batiks in the 1920s. Her batiks from the 1930s reveal great technical virtuosity and a creative use of colour, made possible by synthetic dyes from Europe. After the Second World War, her daughter Jane Hendromartono (1924–1988) took over the family batik business.
