Peranakan Chair Cover

This beautifully embroidered Peranakan chair cover that I bought from a local Singapore antique store was covered in dust and in a sorry state when I found it.  After dry cleaning, it looked spectacular!  It has 3D embroidery which caused many parts of the objects to pop out.  Its use of gold thread made it look particularly luxurious.  I displayed it on a towel rack.

 

This is another chair cover and I bought this from Katong Antique Shop, Singapore.  It is an amazing shop selling all sorts of Peranakan antiques. 

In the foregound is a pair of antique hairpins that I bought from the Philippines and it came from the southern islands of Mindanao. The Celadon vase is from Sisters' Dream, Singapore.

Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to the Indonesian archipelago of Nusantara during the Colonial era.  Members of this community in Melaka address themselves as "Nyonya Baba" instead of "Baba-Nyonya". Nyonya is the term for the ladies and Baba for the gentlemen. 

They were the elites of  Singapore, more loyal to the British than to China. Most have lived for generations along the Straits of Malacca and not all intermarried with the local natives.