Our catalogue > Straits Chinese or Baba-Nonya Items

Most of our clients for Straits Chinese items are based in Singapore & Malaysia. Singapore's Peranakan Museum is among our clients.

The Straits Chinese, also known as the nonyas (for the females) and the babas (the men), as well as the Peranakan Chinese of Indonesia, are the localised Chinese who have been in Southeast Asia for many generations and whose cultures became a blend of Chinese and Malay & Javanese characteristics. They differ to the more newly arrived Chinese (referred to as the sinkeh or totoks) because of this acculturation.

The objects here were made by, or for, members of the localised Chinese communities of Southeast Asia.

All the items have been sourced from within the UK, often from old colonial-era collections, and all items are available for sale right now.

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9006

Straits Chinese Beaded Wedding Slippers

Straits or Peranakan Chinese, Straits Settlements, probably Malacca, Malaysia/Singapore
circa 1880

length: 25cm, width: approximately 8cm, combined weight: 108g

Provenance

UK art market

8899

Unusual Malaysian Straits Silver Presentation Scroll Holder

Malacca, Straits Settlements, Malaya (now Malaysia)
early 20th century

length: 39cm, diameter: 7.2cm, combined weight: 469g

Provenance

UK art market

5322

Straits Chinese Groom’s Double-Sided, Finely Embroidered Blue Wedding Sash

Straits Chinese, Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang, Malacca)
late 19th or early 20th century

length: 197cm, width: 6.5cm

Provenance

Acquired by a colonial administrator in the early 20th century, and has been in England since.

6579

Straits Chinese Red & Gold Floor Candle Stand

Straits Chinese or Peranakan people, Straits Settlements, Malaysia & Singapore
19th century

height: 111cm

Provenance

UK art market

6580

Straits Chinese Red & Gold Floor Candle Stand

Straits Chinese or Peranakan people, Straits Settlements, Malaysia & Singapore
19th century

height (including spike): 114.5cm

Provenance

UK art market

1944

Straits Chinese ‘Brown & Gold’ Ancestral Shrine Cabinet

Straits Chinese community, Straits Settlements (Malacca, Penang, Singapore)
19th century

height: 81cm, width: 70cm, depth: 47cm

Provenance

UK art market

6220

Peranakan or Straits Chinese Altar Front Cloth (Tok Wi)

Straits Chinese or Peranakan, possibly produced in Java, Indonesia
circa 1900

height: 97cm, width: 89cm

Provenance

Private collection, UK; originally acquired in Singapore.

6221

Peranakan or Straits Chinese Altar Front Cloth (Tok Wi)

Private collection, UK; originally acquired in Singapore.
early 20th century

height: 92cm, width: 104cm

Provenance

Private collection, UK; originally acquired in Singapore.

6218

Peranakan or Straits Chinese Altar Front Cloth (Tok Wi)

Straits Chinese or Peranakan, possibly commissioned from China
early to mid-20th century

height: 93cm, width: 95.5cm

Provenance

Private collection, UK; originally acquired in Singapore.

5319

Finely Embroidered Straits Chinese Silk Wedding Valance

Straits Chinese, Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang, Malacca)
circa 1900

wdith: 175cm, length (including tassel hangings): 103cm

Provenance

Acquired by a former colonial British Resident Advisor to Kelantan in the early 20th century, and has been in England since.

5810

Glass Beaded Wedding Slippers (Kasut Manek)

Straits Chinese Community, Singapore, Malacca or Penang
circa 1920

length: 25cm

Provenance

UK art market

5315

Embroidered Chinese Wall Hanging with Shou (寿) & other Daoist Deities

China, exported to the Straits Settlements
19th century

dimensions of backing material: 120cm x 84cm

Provenance

collected by Alwyn Sidney Haynes (1878-1963), and thence by descent. Haynes was a colonial administrator in Malaya and the Straits Settlements between 1901 and 1934. He held many posts including Acting British Resident, Pahang (1924); British Resident, Perak (1925); British Advisor, Kedah (1925); British Advisor, Kelantan (1930); and Acting Colonial Administrator, Straits Settlements (1933), after which he retired and returned to England, and lived near Stratford-upon-Avon, and then in Leamington Spa. Haynes loaned some of the items he collected in Malaya to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford in 1939. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1950.

2681

Inscribed Peranakan Chinese Silver Ritual Ewer

Peranakan Chinese Community, Java, Indonesia
circa 1920

height: 12cm, weight: 151g

Provenance

private collection, London, UK.

2600

Straits Chinese Lacquered & Gilded Ancestral Shrine Cabinet

Southern China for the Straits Chinese Market
circa 1900

height: 43.5cm, width: 34.5cm, thickness: 15cm

Provenance

UK art market

4021

Carved & Polychrome Image of Chu-sheng Niang-niang (the Goddess who Registers Births), Fuzhou Chinese, early 20th century

Hokkien, Teochiu & Fuzhou Chinese Communities in Southeast Asia & China
early 20th century

height: 27cm, width: 14cm

Provenance

Private Collection, Keith Stevens, UK.

4416

Kendi with Green-Glazed Chinese Earthenware & Engraved Brass Mounts

Java, Indonesia
19th century

height: 21cm, width 24cm

Provenance

private collection, UK.