The chief advantage of this process over the other is that, as the dyeing is done before and not after the stencilling, it is possible to get the exact shade of background required. While, in the resist stencilling every minute, almost indeed every second that the stencilled goods are left in the dye-bath, is liable to obscure the pattern. And it is hard to get first-class results, as regards fastness to rubbing and washing, and it is impossible to match shades, when working so hurriedly.

Then, too, this discharge process permits the use of almost every color on the list, while the resist process practically confines the craftsman to the use of the Sulphur dyes only.

Those who are interested in this line of work are advised to try these two processes upon silk, where very beautiful and interesting effects can be produced with but little difficulty. The resist process, using Sulphur colors, gives quiet soft tones on silk, fast to the hardest kind of washing. But brighter shades, equally fast to light, and fairly fast to washing, can be made with the discharge process by using Salt colors.

For ordinary work the Acid dyes, of course, would be used, and these, too, as a rule, discharge readily.

Chapter XVII
BATIK

The last and perhaps the most interesting and most important process to which we shall call our reader’s attention is one which, after being practised in the East for many centuries, has been brought quite recently to the attention of European and American craftsmen.

The term “Batik” is a Javanese word, signifying painting in wax, and the process, somewhat modified, is known to professional dyers and calico-printers by the name of “wax resist.” When in the hands of a trained draughtsman the process has a charm and character of its own, which will warrant the interest now manifested in it, wherever it has been introduced.

History.—Batik was first introduced by the Dutch discoverers of Java, who, in 1648, sent home descriptions, with drawings, of the wonderfully beautiful textiles worn by the people, especially by the chiefs of that country. The art was known and practised in the East long before that time, for in Madras goods were made, by a combination of block printing and Batik, at least as early as the fifteenth century. And in the interior of Java there are some famous old ruins in which are found stone statues of Buddha, supposed to be at least 1,200 or 1,300 years old, clothed in garments the same as those used at the present day; and showing, from their decorations, that they were ornamented by Batik in the same general style of patterns that are still popular there.

During the last few years very careful studies have been made, especially by the Dutch Government, upon this Javanese process, and they have endeavored to introduce it into Europe. It was amusing to notice that in one of the reports issued by the Dutch Government on this subject it was stated that none of the modern dyestuffs could be utilized for this purpose, and that the only colors that could be recommended as fast to light were the old vegetable dyestuffs, applied in the complicated and troublesome methods of past ages. This curiously unscientific attitude has seriously interfered with the success of the process in Western lands, and is only now being abandoned.

Javanese Practice.—Detailed information about the history, technique, and designs of the Javanese process has been set down in a monumental work: “Die Batikkunst in Niederlandisch Indien,” published in Harlem under the auspices of the Dutch Government in 1899. Perhaps of more interest to the non-scientific reader is a short but well-written account of “Battack Printing in Java,” read before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1906 by an English chemist, John Allan, who spent several months among the natives, studying the process at first-hand.