An example of Buketan Van Zuylen

Buketan is a famous Batik Pesisir (coastal batik) motifs. This motif originates from a French word (yes, you guessed it right!), bouquet. It is a motif of a bouquet of flowers and butterflies, allegedly made famous by Eliza Charlotte van Zuylen. Van Zuylen was an Indo-European lady who resided in Pekalongan, West Java since 1888 till her passing away.

The History of Buketan Motif

Inspired by arts and lifestyle publications from Europe, Van Zuylen and many other Indo-European ladies adapted this figurative art style. Evidently, this is different from the usual Batik Pedalaman (inland batik) style. These aristocrats first hired batik artists to produce batik at the back of their mansions, mainly for personal collection. Slowly, due to economic pressure and queries from their peers, they opened up batik workshops for commercial purposes in the 1830s.

Looking at the popularity, Chinese batik traders then followed by producing their own Buketan motif. Due to the plagiarism by these traders, Van Zuylen started the trend of adding signatures on batik cloth, similar to the artists’ signature on canvas, to prove authenticity.

Anatomy of a Buketan Motif

The buketan motif made famous by Van Zuylen was called Batik ‘Pansellen’. Originally, two different batik motifs forms the head and the tail of a buketan batik motif. It then transforms into to a single textile having two or three panels of repeated patterns. These patterns include expressions of flowers, birds and butterflies. Motifs are usually coloured using the brushing (colet) method and followed by dipping (celup) to obtain a pastel-colored background.

Due the availability of synthetic dyes, buketan motifs produced by Chinese production houses usually have eye-catching background colours.

Status Symbol of Buketan Motif

In the coastal areas of Pekalongan, this floral motif are drawn based on the wearer’s status. Spring flowers patterns, such as Japanese sakura, are adorned by unmarried ladies and the summer flower motifs are worn by married ladies. Autumn flower patterns, like a chrysanthemum (a symbol of  grit, longevity, happiness, luck, and old age prosperity), are worn by older ladies. Pattern worn by an older ladies, an encim, gives the rise to the name ‘Batik Encim’. Batik Encim is popular not just among the local Chinese but also among the Straits Chinese ladies in Malaya, including Malaysia and Singapore.