Abstract
Most depictions of interior spaces in early modern Indonesia lack enough detail to make precise reconstructions. This makes the description and illustration made by Johann Wolfgang Heydt of the Governor General’s residential hall in an early eighteenth century Batavia Castle unique. The illustration, albeit created within a Eurocentric framework, provides relatively detailed furnishing information for a historically important site that has long vanished. This research aims to investigate and specify some of the depicted furnishings — particularly tables, shield lamps, and spittoons — by comparing them with surviving artefacts and accounts of Batavian life. Tables with distinctive Louis XIV style undoubtedly point to the dominance of European taste, but many of them were produced by local Chinese craftsmen rather than brought from Europe. The shield lamps were curious in their provenance and may have been local iterations of Islamic pendant lamps consisting of imported Middle Eastern glass and indigenous metalworks. Spittoons conspicuously displayed in the hall were used to cater to local betel chewing habits that were also adopted by the Dutch inhabitants of the city. These furnishings reveal a hybrid culture where European taste — while still a dominant force within the colonial context — is tempered with the adoption of local customs, materials, and craftsmanship. The analysis of these elements also corroborates a more recent approach to early colonial Batavia as a nuanced, cosmopolitan site of complex social exchange and cultural hybridity.
Published Version
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