Ship Cloth from Southern Sumatra Book

Among creations of Indonesian textile art, certain fabrics from the south of Sumatra have attracted these last few years the attention of specialists, not only from the technical point of view but especially for their ethnological and aesthetic interests. 

These textiles seem to date for the most part from the middle of the 19th century. Unfortunately, their acquisition by Europeans at the beginning of the 20th century was not accompanied by any systematic investigation and the few facts gathered at this time do not constitute a sufficient source permitting us to give a more precise date. One does not know either at which period this type of textile first began to appear. Nevertheless, their function, the role that they fill in the society and the motifs that constitute their ornamentation are so directly associated with the very foundation of traditional Indonesian life that the date of their origin should be considered very old. 

Written by Francoise Fauconnier

48 Pages 

148979