Cypher? engraving on a Jogja pendok

[Jayaningkurnia]

Hello from a new member and greetings to everyone - am lucky and honoured to come across this forum.

I recently acquired a keris and had a new sandangan branggah made for it by a senior mranggi from Ponorogo. He gitted the sandangan with a perak lamen (old silver) pendok and I noticed there's a crown engraving at the back which piqued my curiosity (the attached picture).

Have any of you come across similar engraving before and does anyone know what does it signify/represents?

Thank you in advance for kindly and generously sharing your knowledge and wisdom.

[A. G. Maisey]

Good to see that you have another enquiry Jaya, & that you are maintaining your interest.

That engraving of a crown is simply an engraving of a crown, alone, & with no other symbols it really has no specific meaning. This is not uncommon.

If it had further engraving involving symbolism of the Ngayogyakarta Karaton, or of the Pakualamanan, it could indicate an association with a member of one hierarchies of either one of these noble houses mentioned --- or it might not.

I suggest that you might like to test, or to have tested, the material from which the pendok is made, this is a very simple test and usually a jeweller or silver worker will do it for free.

Alternatively you might like to buy a bottle of test fluid, it is quite cheap, lasts for a very long time, & a test takes only one drop. It is useful to have on hand when somebody offers you with a mamas pendok & claims that it is silver.

[Jayaningkurnia]

Thank you Mr. Maisey for the input. Well noted on your advice to get silver test fluid for future purchases.

When I check online, most of these test fluids are acid-based and the process typically involves rubbing the silver on some form of abrasive surface (to be then mixed with the fluid for testing). Is this the test fluid you are referring to? and how do we avoid damaging or scratching the pendok?

[A. G. Maisey]

To the best of my knowledge, gold is still tested with a touchstone & nitric acid in higher & lower concentrations is used, for very high content gold aqua regia is used.

However, for silver we use a test fluid that is applied directly to the metal, just one drop, & the metal turns red if it contains silver.

This is not a precise test like the gold, so we do not know the silver content, to ascertain accurate silver, content other methods, including laboratory analysis are required. Silver is nowhere near as valuable as gold, & for the small items of silver that we normally need to test, the cost getting precise silver content would outweigh the value of the silver.

A little bottle of silver test fluid costs only a few dollars will last for a very long time.