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South East Asian Art and Antiques, & Antiquarian, Rare and Collectable books
South East Asian Art and Antiques, & Antiquarian, Rare and Collectable books

Vintage Indonesian Chinese Batik Printing Blocks - Copper and Steel: Dragon and Sun (5pc set). Tjap.

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£0.00
SKU LAN6276

Vintage Indonesian Chinese Batik Printing Blocks - Copper and Steel: Dragon and Sun (5pc set). We initially assumed that these would be Chinese due to the design, but they are likely have been made in Indonesia, where such printing blocks are known as Tjap.

SOLD

A wonderful complete set of antique handmade metal printing blocks - for batik printing or other textiles, such as banners or flags, or wall decoration. Four of the pieces make up a Chinese style dragon or 'loong', with the other piece representing the sun. Whist we've seen individual blocks for sale before, this is the first time we have come across a multi-piece set like this.

Steel casings and handles hold intricate copper printing designs. The printed design may represent the dragon chasing a 'pearl of wisdom', showing his pursuit of knowledge and insight.

They are in excellent condition, with very little damage, and some ink traces remain. Difficult to age these exactly, but probably around the early part of the 20th Century.

When placed together, as in the first picture, the entire image is around 85cm x 25cm. The printing blocks, including handles are typically around 9cm depth.

The size and weight of each individual piece clearly varies, but a typical guide size would be around 20cm x 18cm, and weighing around 0.85kg each.

Whist these are wonderful, and usable, objects in their own right, they could easily be mounted onto a wooden display board to make a very attractive and unique display.