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Originally Posted by rasdan
On some older keris, I noticed that the sunggingan (if we can call it sunggingan) the scene painted are quite random. However I am not sure if the "sunggingan" are Javanese in the first place. Below is an example of a keris that have such painting.
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The matters with this keris and its painted sheath are a bit complicated and very interesting.
At first some facts about its provenance. The first ascertained provenance is the estate inventory of Maximilian III (von Habsburg), who was the son of Austrian Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain (daughter of Isabella of Portugal and granddaughter of Manuel I of Portugal), and the Grandmaster of Teutonic Order. From 1632 on it's frequently mentioned in the inventories of Teutonic Order. It makes this keris one of the three oldest with secure provenance.
Now some interesting possibility.
There is an inventory of Guarda Roupa (wardrobe, an analogue to Kunstkammer) of the King Manuel I of Portugal from 1522. There is mentioned a keris with rock chrystal hilt and scabbard adorned with rubies, and two other keris, whose hilts were carved in the form of women (Heritage of Rauluchantim, catalogue of an exhibition held in Museu de Sao Roque in Lisboa, 1996). Another mentioning of this inventory in Exotica, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 2000, says, these two other keris have wooden scabbards, and the hilts are made from horn, adorned with rubies.
Besides this perhaps beeing the earliest mentioning of a Wadon (or Balu Mekabun) hilt form, there is some possibility the inventory from 1522 lists the keris in question - it has a Wadon hilt, made from Rhinoceros horn, adorned with rubies, and a wooden scabbard.
Now to the painting on the scabbard of this keris.
It is done in lacquer painting, gold on green background. There is no other early Sunggingan (the two most complete ones beeing the Sendai and the (other) Wienna keris), where painting would be done in this technique. Also the style of painting on all other early Sunggingan is completely different.
The style of the painting on this scabbard is Indo/Portuguese and characteristic for a group of furniture, made or painted in workshops in Cochin for portuguese market. There is a tabletop in Kunstkammer of Kunsthistorisches Museum in Wienna, Inv Nr. 4958, which belonged to Viceroy of Portugal, Albrecht of Austria, first mentioned in an inventory from 1596. The technique, lacquer painting, and the colours are the same, the style of painting almost completely identical to the scabbard in question. It can be judged quite well, becouse the scenery is the same, animals/birds in a setting of foliage.
Regarding the adornments of the hilt, they are very close/identical to the adornments found on Ceylonese ivory objects, made for portuguese market.