BTO: Collector's corner

Business Times - 11 Apr 2009

PERSONAL SPACE
Collector's corner

Art and heritage consultant Peter Lee's home is something of a large receptacle, filled with various collections and the sort of paraphernalia that readily identifies him as a member of a special breed. By Geoffrey Eu

 

THERE'S a point in every collector's life when something that starts off as a casual interest evolves into a more serious pursuit, turning later - for the unfortunate few - into a near-obsessive, all-consuming passion. These objects of desire run the gamut from postage stamps and snuff bottles to first edition books, antique watches, vintage wines, and plenty more.

 

Art and heritage consultant Peter Lee's collectible of choice is batik - specifically pre-war Javanese batiks - and it has transformed him, over the short space of a decade or so, from a textile neophyte into a leading authority on a relatively unknown subject. It's also turned his home into something resembling one large receptacle, filled with various collections and the sort of paraphernalia that readily identifies him as a member of a special breed.

 

His home - one of five purpose-built apartments within a large family house that he shares with his parents and brothers - comprises a compact, comfortable living and work space beside a shared swimming pool. When he is home, however, Mr Lee spends most of his time in a separate, specially designed storage room above the garage. Here, on an antique wooden worktable in climate- and humidity-controlled comfort, he works on compiling his collection, based on makers' names, and the towns in Java they lived in. 'I just love spending time in here,' he says.

 

The primary items stored on shelves and in stainless steel drawers are the 800 or so pieces of batik that he has in his collection - almost all them made by Chinese workshops in Java around the 1930s and individually signed by their respective makers.

 

Mr Lee chose to focus on this niche aspect of batiks because he realised that there wasn't much knowledge in this area among collectors. 'I became excited about it because it was still undiscovered,' he says. 'I collect to learn something - it's part of my education - so there's no point in collecting something which is well studied or well known.'

 

It all started when he was in a Yogyakarta antique shop, looking for a batik sarong for his mother. 'The owner had an amazing collection and she showed me a piece where the quality was astounding - it was my first encounter with the top-end stuff,' says Lee. 'My starting point was what my mother wore, then I slowly found that this was an art that had not been studied much. From there, it moved on to what my grandmother wore, and what Peranakan costume was all about.'

 

Mr Lee eventually realised that the textile trade was one of the most important businesses in the history of the region. He also discovered that batik was a descendant of cloths made in India. These so-called trade cloths were used in the bartering system that was common among seafaring communities and were later used for trading in spices by early colonialists.

 

'These cloths became one of the currencies of South-east Asia - they were the trade equivalent of Chinese porcelain,' says Mr Lee. 'I found that there were direct design correlations between batik designs made by the Chinese in Java and those Indian trade cloths. The interesting thing for me is this evidence of early global trade,' he says. 'This is our heritage.'

 

As might be expected, Mr Lee, 46, caught the collecting bug at a young age - he was an art history and archaeology student in London when he started combing flea markets for 19th-century photographs of South-east Asia, for example - and in addition to the batiks, he is also the owner of a stunning collection of rare black and white photographs taken in the mid-1800s.

 

Again, it is a very specific subject that hasn't been studied in depth. 'The photos were taken in the era before the Suez Canal was built, when travel to this region was difficult,' says Mr Lee. 'Photos of South-east Asia in general are rare and the focus was on portraits of royals and historic buildings. I'm piecing together the oldest and rarest photos from the region - everything has an interesting history behind it.'

 

Among the many fascinating pictures is one of a bathing Japanese prostitute in Singapore in the early 1900s, taken at the studio of GR Lambert, a well-known name in portrait photography whose studio in Battery Road first opened in 1867. 'It was fashionable then because there was a European market for this early soft porn,' says Mr Lee. 'The subject of women and the bath was both fashionable and current.'

 

Mr Lee communicates regularly with researchers, museum directors and fellow collectors from around the world. 'It's very important to stay engaged with scholars and other collectors,' he says. 'You can't collect in isolation - there is a wonderful reward in building up relationships with collectors who have similar interests.'

 

Mr Lee's apartment, comprising living room, study and bedroom, isn't exactly a shrine to his collecting habit - but it comes pretty close. All of the available space, and even some of what isn't, is taken up by assorted boxes, books, specialist publications and faded photographs.

 

The spillover effect is much in evidence here. There are even original copies of The Sunday Times (from 1931) and The Straits Times (1939), bought off eBay. If he needs space for himself, he can always adjourn to a large, common living area elsewhere in the house.

 

'There's a part of hoarding where it becomes quite ugly,' says Mr Lee. 'If you're not careful it becomes a grand obsession. I try to balance that with a sense of mission, where I am collecting artistic and intellectual raw material for the future. You do get these occasional dark feelings, but you learn the art of letting go.'

 

When it does come time to let go, Mr Lee will do so in style. He plans to donate his entire collection to a research institution for use by future generations. 'Collecting started as a form of self-education,' he says. 'My aim is to put together a resource that will be accessible to researchers and students - this governs what I collect and how I collect.'