A rare girl's cotton batik and silk applique ceremonial breastcloth of the royal family of Surakarta.  Hand-drawn batik and natural dyes.  This breastcloth has a golden brown parang suli batik design surrounding a plain red silk applique diamond with a scalloped outline. An inner border of cream mounds with internal 3-leafed sprigs, and outer border of outlined cream flowers in the tritik pattern regulon on dark blue. Hand-rolled and sewn hems, very fine silky cotton.  Only the wives and close relatives of the Sultan were allowed to wear breastcloths with appliqued silk applied over the central reserved diamond. A few examples for adults are illustrated in Rudolf Smend's Batik: from the Courts of Java and Sumatra  (Koln, 2000). of the many floral variants of the parang (meaning "knife", S-shaped, diagonally oriented) motif, one of the quintessential Hindu-Javanese batik patterns, the parang suli with its refined, restrained form and three tiny dots is particularly used for court batik.  The condition is perfect The piece appears hardly worn, and there are no stains, holes, or tears. The natural indigo and soga dyes of the batik are rich and vivid (particularly rare for the soga, which fades with exposure to light). The imported red silk is a dark, soft cranberry red and retains a fine, glistening sheen. The cotton is of the highest grade and extremely soft to the touch.  41" x 18"