Balinese hulu
 

For your viewing pleasure please.

Modern depiction of Nawasari?, from bone or resin?

Yes, it is Nawasari, made of moose antler from Bali and I coated with light mineral oil. Photo taken with flash using smart-phone.

Nice carving, maker has skills.

This would probably have a better, less plasticy look if you wiped off the oil and used natural light instead of flash. ;)
Honestly Wayne, i would venture that this is only just passible carving skills for Balinese carvers.

Anthony, would it be possible for you to give us four full length shots of this carving? Front, back, each side, taken in open shade, natural light.

Doing a sectional close up of a detailed carving never permits the full beauty of the object to be appreciated.

Agreed! :D But let Anthony show us better pics as suggested by Alan.

Hi Alan and all

My new girlfriend and looks at how she pull her hair back. Absolutely seductive.

Thank you Anthony.

I think that that this has been well carved, but the problem in my opinion is the material, moose antler is exceptionally difficult material to work.

If this had been done in ivory --- yes, I know --- I believe it would be truly beautiful.

Done in ebony, it would also be better.

But antler?

The carver has done a pretty fair job, but I doubt that anybody can extract excellence from antler.

It looks much nicer than on the original pic indeed. :)
The head is oversized (almost as wide as the body) and the poor guy is obese as on many modern carvings....

Actually I have no idea the original authenticated version look but this look kind of nice. Obese? Must have eaten too much Mc. Donald.

I agree Alan. This is why i mentioned to Anthony in postings elsewhere that i am not particularly a fan of moose as a carving material for these togogan hilts. I do understand and appreciate that Bali carvers are looking for replacement material for ivory, but i am usually a little disappointed with the results when it is used.

ummm...i don't think your new girlfriend is a girl. LOL! ;)

David, I don't know that there is a satisfactory material as replacement for ivory. At least not for larger carvings.

Tagua nuts I consider to be pretty good for smaller carvings, like netsuke.

Some entrepreneur should get into the business of developing super size tagua nuts.

Hi Alan

I have no idea about Ivory and would like to seek your advice. Is Ivory better medium for craving especially Balinese kind of hulu? If so, is it because it is 'soft' and therefore easy to work with?

Anthony, I have never worked with ivory, so I really cannot comment of matters that have to do with working this material.

However, I do have a moderate collection of carvings in various types of ivory, and what I can say is that where a master craftsman is involved in the carving, I consider that no material comes close to ivory in its ability to translate the craftsman's ideas & efforts into a supreme expression of human endeavour.

Hi Alan, understood. Thanks

Another Balinese hulu and it's interpretation
 

This is another Balinese hulu in moose antler. I am disappointed someone else got it.

Anyway, I like to ask as many people around told me different things. And I am still unsure what this figure is about. Can anyone advise?


1: Priest?

2: Old learner (teacher)?

A very fine & detailed modern carving (a bit overdone) with a very expressive face and plenty of Hindu symbols (Bhoma, naga, etc).
It may depict Guru Agastya, a Hindu ascet, or simply a balinese priest (pendita), this style of figure is quite common.

Guru Agastya?

I did not know this person until you mentioned it and do some read up on the internet. I tend to think it might be Guru Agastya based on the sculpture and those photo i saw on the net.

Many thanks Jean for sharing.

I attach the pics of 4 hilts in similar style (bearded priest or sage). The attribution to Guru Agastya was taken from Martin Kerner. The third specimen is supposed to depict "Empu Barada" according to a Javanese keris specialist.
Regards

interesting. Thanks for sharing :D

Possibly we can see Mpu Barada here Jean, possibly.

Or maybe we can see whatever it is that we wish to see.

In this third picture I can see a figure that is perhaps supposed to represent a priest, but what kind of priest?

Normally, a Buddhist priest would hold the bell in his left hand, and if using the vajra, he would hold that in his right hand.

I believe, but am not certain, that a Hindu priest would also hold the bell in his left hand, but in Bali I have see Hindu priests use both right & left hand for the bell.

In the Nagarakertagama Mpu Barada is identified as a Buddhist priest.

This hilt figure that is supposedly a depiction of the Honourable Mpu Barada shows the bell in the right hand. Perhaps that might be a vajra in his left hand.

Surely a Buddhist priest as respected as was Mpu Barada would know what hand to hold his bell in?

Did Mpu Barada get his left hand confused with his right, or did the carver not know right from left, or as is very often the case we simply cannot assign definite personalities to Balinese keris hilt carvings?

I agree about the uncertainty and confusion of the hilt attribution to a specific figure but it does not detract from their artistic value.
To further add to it, I attach the pics of a well-known reference book about Bali/ Lombok kris hilts from an experienced Dutch author.
Regards

Very probably interesting Jean, but I cannot read Dutch, and I cannot see the pictures particularly well.

I do not consider that all Balinese hilts , or for that matter, all figural hilts, are unable to be aligned to known characters, but personal experience involving several very well known and respected carvers in Bali has caused me to rather unwillingly accept that hilt carvers are not usually possessed of the type of knowledge that would permit them to unerringly depict folk characters and religious characters in a way that always will permit a person other than the carver to identify that character.

Then there is the widely acknowledged fact that Balinese folk & religious characters are frequently interpreted by artists in ways and forms that make them unrecognizable if they are compared to the established forms from Hindu belief and in the case of folk characters, from generally accepted belief.

Where this matter of keris hilt characters is concerned I think we just need to accept that some questions cannot be answered.

Might it not be reasonable to assume that somebody as knowledgeable and as respected in the field of Balinese art as Pande Wayan Suteja Neka would have not the slightest difficulty in naming hilt characters?

Most especially so when Pak Neka is in a position where he can easily call upon many other knowledgeable Balinese art authorities, keris enthusiasts and craftsmen & artists.

But if we thumb through his Bali keris book, and then carefully read the exhibit tags in his keris museum, I feel that we might be excused for believing that even somebody in such a fortunate position as Pak Neka is sometimes at a loss for a name, and at other times perhaps a little confused.

Maybe the only way one can really know the identity of some keris hilt characters is to make the appropriate offerings and then go to sleep with a hilt under one's pillow. The correct answer will come in a dream.

Going back a few years I raised this question of identities of the characters represented in keris hilts with a well known Balinese hilt carver. Stripped of the fifteen minutes or so of verbal padding his answer came down to this:-

"when we carve a figure we do not always try to make that figure look like a person from a story, mostly we carve a figure that is intended to generate an idea, but this can change when we carve a figure that is so well known that people expect it to look like who it is supposed to be"

Nobody seems to be in doubt about Nawasari when he appears, but when we meet with a broadly generic figure the carver might have been doing what I was told:- he was attempting to carve a figure that would cause an idea to be formed.

Thank you Alan, I agree that the pics are small and about what you say about the hilts ID; the book from Neka caused me a lot of confusion while writing my hilt book.....