Woman’s Shoulder Cloth (selendang) or Breast Cloth (kemben)
1899-1998
Scroll
Woman’s Shoulder Cloth (selendang) or Breast Cloth (kemben)
1899-1998
Physical Qualities
Cotton, 21 x 104 in. (53.3 x 264.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. William H. B. Howard, Joppa, Maryland
Object Number
2009.209
Selendang, or Indonesian woman's shoulder cloth composed of a rectangular piece of very fine cotton cloth batiked with a double-sided pattern in brown and blue. The center field is light brown with a pattern of extremely fine pinholes. The border pattern is a repeating diagonal ornament called "cimukirran" in blue and brown and white. The edges are turned under approximately 1/16" and hemmed by hand on all four sides.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2009; Ami Howard, Joppa, MD
Pepin Van Roojen, Batik Design, Boston: Shambhala, 1997, pp. 36, 37, p. 78.
Inger McCabe Elliott, Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1984, p. 69,p. 208, cat. 18 similar piece dated c. 1910-1920 from Cirebon.
Michael Hitchcock, Indonesian Textiles, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1991, p. 147 for very similar example identified as kemben rather than a selendang.
Inger McCabe Elliott, Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1984, p. 69,p. 208, cat. 18 similar piece dated c. 1910-1920 from Cirebon.
Michael Hitchcock, Indonesian Textiles, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1991, p. 147 for very similar example identified as kemben rather than a selendang.
