Brown Fleming and the Haarlem Collection: The European Production of Wax Prints for West Africa

Tracing the history of how imitation Indonesian batik print fabric found an unexpected audience in Western Africa

In the late 19th century, the Scottish merchant Ebenezer Brown Fleming introduced the first wax-printed batik imitations, made by Prévinaire and produced in the Netherlands, adapting them to the tastes of African customers. This book, the first to focus on the history of wax for West Africa from its beginnings to the present day, features more than 150 color illustrations and details how copies of Indonesian batik, manufactured in Europe and initially intended for the Southeast Asian market, enjoyed unexpected success on the west coast of Africa at the end of the 19th century. New research based on Dutch, English and Swiss archives has not only enabled the reconstruction of the earliest collections but also provides an overview of the development of Dutch wax in Europe from its beginnings to the last surviving company, Vlisco, which still prints these classics today.