Style combination · Pairs well

Đông Hồ × Kalighat Pat

Both are cheap bazaar pictures that set a single figure on bare paper and mix devotion with satire; combine their quiet grounds and comic social types.

From the research on Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints

Mix them and make something Đông Hồ Kalighat Pat

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kalighat Pat, their arrangement from Kalighat Pat, the finish from Đông Hồ. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints

Type from Đông Hồ: Brush & pen calligraphy
Colour from Đông Hồ: Earth & mineral
Flat fields
Form from Kalighat Pat: Stylised figuration
Distortion & exaggeration
Composition from Kalighat Pat: Isolated object
Single focal point
Surface from Đông Hồ: Paper & letterpress bite
Carved line

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Đông Hồ

Ours

Cinzel, standing in for Chữ Nôm inscriptions on older prints (many later removed or lost in recutting)

Text · Kalighat Pat

The bazaar art of nineteenth-century Calcutta: watercolours sold to pilgrims by patua painters at the Kalighat temple, and the cheap woodcuts and metal engravings that Battala presses printed for chapbooks and almanacs. A single plaque-like figure stands on unpainted paper, drawn with one loaded, sweeping brushstroke that both outlines and shades it. Deities share the repertoire with satire of the Westernised babu, domestic scandal and street life.

Archivo; Kalighat Pat used Bengali captions cut into Battala woodblocks and Bengali letterpress text of Battala chapbooks and almanacs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Đông Hồ, with a counter-accent from Kalighat Pat. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints

#ece4d0 ground · 36%
#2b2723 ink · 14%
#d8a63a accent · 18%
#b2412e accent · 14%
#3b5a80 accent · 10%
#b7b7b2 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ece4d0;
  --ink: #2b2723;
  --accent-1: #d8a63a;
  --accent-2: #b2412e;
  --accent-3: #3b5a80;
  --accent-4: #b7b7b2;
  --font-display: "Cinzel", serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints: Đông Hồ printing is a living family craft. In 2025 UNESCO inscribed it on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, noting that only a small number of families continue it and that their carved blocks are heirlooms; Vietnamese press counts about three households. Machine-printed fakes also undercut the workshops, so commission, buy from or credit the Đông Hồ workshops rather than tracing their designs. Do not invent pseudo-Hán captions or strip the real ones for decoration; the carved inscriptions state each print's meaning. Treat worship prints, including Hàng Trống images for the Mother Goddess cult and for temples, as devotional objects rather than decor, and keep Vietnamese diacritics intact.

Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints: Many sheets depict Hindu deities that are still worshipped (Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Krishna), and some were painted for Muslim patrons (Duldul, Imam Husain's horse), so do not distort, crop or place these figures in mocking or disposable contexts. The patua (chitrakar) families of Bengal still practise the art; commission or credit living painters rather than tracing museum images, and name the artist where known.

The two styles

1600–present · Southeast Asia Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints Vietnam's two classic folk-print schools, bought for Tết. Đông Hồ families press each colour from its own carved block onto giấy điệp, dó paper brushed with ground scallop shell whose streaked, faintly sparkling surface serves as the white, and print the black line last. Plump animals and children, folk tales and satire such as the Rats' Wedding carry a short Hán or Nôm caption. In Hanoi's Hàng Trống only the outline was printed and the colour was brushed on in graded vờn washes, mostly for worship images. Kim Hoàng and Làng Sình prints fall outside this entry. 1830–1930 · South Asia Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints The bazaar art of nineteenth-century Calcutta: watercolours sold to pilgrims by patua painters at the Kalighat temple, and the cheap woodcuts and metal engravings that Battala presses printed for chapbooks and almanacs. A single plaque-like figure stands on unpainted paper, drawn with one loaded, sweeping brushstroke that both outlines and shades it. Deities share the repertoire with satire of the Westernised babu, domestic scandal and street life.