The buketan motif or a large bouquet of flowers is depicted on both the main design field (on the body or badan) and broad vertical panel (kepala) of this batik. The curving tendrils and exuberant blooms are set against a plain traditional soga brown ground in the kepala. While the buketan is set against diagonal rows of the parang design, an ancient Javanese motif that was traditionally associated with the Javanese royalty. 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 mother of the donors, Jane Hendromartono, the last of the three generations. Jane Hendromartono came from a family of batik makers in Pekalongan. She used many names in her lifetime. Her first batiks were created under her mother’s name, Nyonya Oeij Kok Sing (1895–1966). She began using her husband’s name, Liem Siok Hien, in 1947. From 1967 her works were marketed as Hendromartono’s Batik Art “Unique”, using her husband’s new Indonesian family name. She rarely repeated designs, and her highly individualistic style and inventive use of colour made her batiks popular at home and abroad.
