Indonesische Kunstnijverheid — “Indonesian Arts and Crafts” — is the source book by Prof. T. J. Bezemer from which the present cluster of AcehWiki entries on Atjeh decorative art is drawn. It was published on 15 October 1933 by N.V. tot Exploitatie van het Maandblad “Nederl-Indië, Oud en Nieuw” (The Hague: ten Hagen’s Drukkerij en Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V.), uitgegeven met medewerking der (published with the assistance of) the Koninklijke Vereeniging “Koloniaal Instituut” of Amsterdam. It is a Platen-Atlas (plate-atlas) — a quarto-format volume of photographic plates of indigenous craft objects from the Nederlandsch-Indië archipelago, preceded by an Inleiding (introduction) of sixteen pages in which Bezemer surveys, technique by technique, the principal kunstnijverheid (crafts) practised across the archipelago. The book was acquired by the Universiteitsbibliotheek of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (accession LS 5411, shelfmark “BIBL VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT 05411 AMSTERDAM”), where it remains held.
Author and provenance
Prof. T. J. Bezemer is identified on the title-page as the author of the Inleiding; the volume itself is described as UITGEGEVEN MET MEDEWERKING DER KONINKLIJKE VEREENIGING “KOLONIAAL INSTITUUT”, AMSTERDAM — that is, published with the co-operation of the Royal Association “Colonial Institute” of Amsterdam. The publisher, the N.V. tot Exploitatie van het Maandblad “Nederl-Indië, Oud en Nieuw”, was the corporate vehicle of the monthly journal Nederl-Indië, Oud en Nieuw (The Netherlands Indies, Old and New), and the Bezemer atlas was issued as a companion volume to that journal, sharing its printer (ten Hagen) and its editorial orientation towards colonial-ethnographic subjects. The book’s date — 1933 — places it firmly in the late-colonial period of Dutch rule in the Netherlands Indies, three years after the 1930 census and eight years before the Japanese invasion of 1941–1942. It is, in this sense, a late-colonial survey, written by a Dutch professor drawing on Dutch museum collections (principally the Koloniaal Instituut’s ethnographic division, the Rijks Ethnographisch Museum at Leiden, and the Museum voor Land- en Volkenkunde at Rotterdam) and on Dutch scholarly literature.
Structure and contents
The volume is organised in two parts. The Inleiding runs from page 3 to page 16 and is divided into nine lettered sections, each treating one craft:
- A. Vlechtwerk (plaiting) — plates 1–13, pp. 4–5
- B. Weven (weaving) — plates 14–72, pp. 5–7
- C. Batikken (batik) — plates 73–87, pp. 7–9
- D. Bamboesnijwerk (bamboo-carving) — plates 88–108, p. 9
- E. Houtsnijwerk (wood-carving) — plates 109–145, p. 10
- F. Koperwerk (brasswork) — plates 146–181, p. 11
- G. Ijzersmeedkunst (ironwork) — plates 208–235, p. 12
- H. Goud- en Zilverwerk (gold- and silverwork) — plates 182–185, pp. 13 — this is the section that documents the Atjeh *soeasa* wrapping technique
- I. Vervaardiging van Wajangpoppen (the making of wayang puppets) — plates 186–198, pp. 14–16
The plates themselves (245 of them, in numbered groups from 1 to 245) follow, each captioned in four languages: Dutch, English, French and German. Each caption identifies the object, its place of origin, and — where relevant — the museum or private collection from which the photograph was drawn. An appendix (Verzameling / Collection / Sammlung, pp. 169–170) lists the photographers, draughtsmen, and lenders of the illustrations.
The Atjeh material in the book
The Atjeh material in Bezemer’s atlas, drawn on by the present cluster of AcehWiki entries, includes:
- The Atjeh *soeasa* wrapping technique — documented in Inleiding § H, where the technique of wrapping a copper core with a sheet of *spinsbek*/*soeasa* is described in detail (p. 13).
- The Atjeh loom — Weefgetouw. Atjeh, Sumatra — illustrated as plate 62 (p. 48).
- The Atjeh imported-silk warp-ikat — Geïmporteerd zijden weefsel. Atjeh, N. Sumatra — illustrated as plate 65 (p. 49).
- The Atjeh silk ikat with warp strokes — Zijden ikatweefsel. Atjeh — illustrated as plate 66 (p. 49).
- The Atjeh sirih bowl and food tray — Sirih-schotel en etensblad. Atjeh, Sumatra — illustrated as plate 172 (p. 124).
- The standing brass lamps from Northern and Central Sumatra — plate 174 (p. 125) — which, since Atjeh is the principal Noord-Sumatra residency, must include Atjeh examples.
In addition, the Inleiding places Atjeh within several archipelago-wide craft-geographies, contrasting Atjeh’s soeasa wrapping with the filigree of the Padangsche Bovenlanden (p. 13) and with the granulation of the Bataks, Dyaks and Timorese (p. 13); noting the Atjeh use of *rimbaga* wax in the *cire perdue* process described for Toba-Batak goldsmiths on Noord-Sumatra (p. 13); and including Atjeh alongside Tapanoeli, Kota Gédang and other Sumatran centres in the chapter on weaving. Bezemer’s account is not Atjeh-centred — his concern is with the whole archipelago — but he consistently identifies Atjeh as the regional variant within each technique, and thus places Atjeh, technique by technique, within the broader Indonesian craft tradition.
Comparison with Wagner’s Sierkunst in Indonesië
The Bezemer atlas of 1933 is the earlier of the two Dutch plate-surveys of Indonesian decorative art that form the principal printed sources for the AcehWiki’s cluster of Atjeh craft entries; the later is F. A. Wagner’s Sierkunst in Indonesië of 1949, which forms its own source-book cluster. The two books overlap in subject-matter — both survey the archipelago’s decorative arts technique-by-technique, and both identify Atjeh as a regional variant within each technique — but they differ markedly in form and emphasis. Bezemer’s volume is a plate-atlas: the photographs are the primary content, and the Inleiding is a brief sixteen-page commentary on the techniques the plates illustrate. Wagner’s volume, by contrast, is a handleiding (manual) — a longer text-driven account in the Insulinde series of teacher-training manuals, with fewer and smaller illustrations. Bezemer’s plates thus preserve, in 1933, a specifically photographic record of Atjeh craft objects in Dutch museum collections at the moment when those collections were at their fullest, sixteen years before Wagner’s text-driven survey.
Significance
For the present cluster of AcehWiki entries, Indonesische Kunstnijverheid is the founding source — the book from which the entries on Atjeh decorative art are drawn. Its significance in the larger history of Atjehnese studies is that it offers, in a single 1933 survey, a synthetic account of Atjeh decorative art that places Atjeh, technique by technique, within the broader Indonesian tradition. Bezemer’s account is, in this sense, the principal Dutch scholarly source for the study of Atjeh decorative art in the late colonial period, and the entries drawn from it are, in turn, the AcehWiki’s first account of the Atjeh craftsman’s work in plaiting, weaving, sirih-ware, and metalwork as documented photographically in 1933.
See Also
- T. J. Bezemer
- Koninklijke Vereeniging “Koloniaal Instituut”
- N.V. tot Exploitatie van het Maandblad “Nederl-Indië, Oud en Nieuw”
- Nederlandsch-Indië, Oud en Nieuw
- De Inlandsche Kunstnijverheid in Nederlandsch-Indië
- Sierkunst in Indonesië
- Atjeh goldsmithing (soeasa technique)
- Atjeh weefgetouw (Bezemer plate 62)
- Atjeh imported silk warp ikat (Bezemer plate 65)
- Atjeh silk ikat warp strokes (Bezemer plate 66)
- Atjeh sirih-schotel en etensblad (Bezemer plate 172)
- Noord-Sumatra standing brass lamps (Bezemer plate 174)
- Rimbaga
- Spinsbek
- Cire perdue
- Filigraanwerk (Padangsche Bovenlanden)
- Granuleeren
- Ikatten
- 1933
Source
Indonesische Kunstnijverheid. Platen-Atlas met Inleiding van Prof. T. J. Bezemer. Uitgegeven met medewerking der Koninklijke Vereeniging “Koloniaal Instituut”, Amsterdam. N.V. tot Exploitatie van het Maandblad “Nederl-Indië, Oud en Nieuw”. ‘s-Gravenhage: ten Hagen’s Drukkerij en Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V., 15 October 1933. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, LS 5411 (shelfmark 05411).