Familiealbum van een Chinees-Indische familie in Weltevreden, ca. 1935 c. 1935 - 1936

This family album was made around 1935, likely in Indonesia, by an anonymous maker. Its cover combines several decorative techniques: bookbinding, paper marbling, and foil stamping. The marbled paper gives the album cover a distinctive character. This effect may seem accidental, but is in fact very controlled, made by floating pigments on a liquid surface and then transferring them to the paper. The foil stamping, in contrast, uses heat and pressure to apply a metallic design. This technique would likely have been done using a machine. The combination of the two processes on one object is quite interesting. Taken together, the handcrafted marbling alongside the more mechanically-driven foil stamping reflects a society in transition, one in which traditional craft practices exist alongside industrial production. This object gives us insight into the social fabric of a specific time and place. Appreciating these intersections of material, making, and context allows us to see beyond the simple categorization of ‘art’ versus ‘craft’.