Brown Fleming and the Haarlem Collection

The European production of Dutch wax prints for West Africa
This book details how copies of Indonesian batik, manufactured in Europe and initially intended for the South-East Asian market, enjoyed unexpected success on the west coast of Africa at the end of the 19th century.

This book details how copies of Indonesian batik, manufactured in Europe and initially intended for the South-East Asian market, enjoyed unexpected success on the west coast of Africa at the end of the 19th century. The Scottish merchant Brown Fleming introduced the first wax-printed batik imitations made by Prévinaire and produced in the Netherlands, and adapted them to the tastes of African customers.

New research based on Dutch, English and Swiss archives has enabled us not only to reconstruct the earliest collections, but also to provide an overview of the development of Dutch wax in Europe from its beginnings to the last surviving company, Vlisco, in Helmond (Netherlands), which still prints these classics today.

This book will be the first to focus on the history of wax for West Africa in the various European countries from its beginnings to the present day, drawing of course on existing literature, but above all on primary sources.