The compilation album "Java – First Part ," published by Droste Cacao in 1934, is a fine example of how Dutch companies of that era combined education and advertising. The album is part of a series of illustrated Droste publications that presented exotic countries and colonies to the Dutch public—in this case, the island of Java, then the heart of the Dutch East Indies.
The album contains a series of colorful sticker images that could be collected with the purchase of Droste products. The images depict the Javanese landscape, cities, agriculture, crafts, temples, dances, and customs of the people. Each image is accompanied by short explanatory texts that provide an impression of daily life in Java, often in the admiring and colonial tone characteristic of that period.
The album's layout is elegant and inviting: sturdy paper, a cover printed with a Javanese motif or tropical scene, and interior pages organized by theme—for example, nature, culture, trade, and religion. Fully pasted, it forms a richly illustrated document of how the Netherlands in the 1930s viewed "the East" and the colonial empire.
