[A. G. Maisey]

The reason I guessed 1980-1990's is because during that time span Hardiono set up a store in Kuta-Legian under the managership of his niece, and they had an extremely large number of these souvenir keris holders produced. Actually, this could be narrowed to probably 1985-1995. Prior to that I didn't see much between about 1970 and when Hardiono's stuff started to be sold, older keris holders very often have a square base rather than a round base, and keris holders produced for local consumption are carved from hardwood, rather than softwood. During the 1960's and 1970's Bali was still very much unaffected by tourism, yes, there were tourists there, there had been since the 1930's, but the carving centres around Mas and Ubud had not really begun to produce the vast quantities of souvenir quality items.
A keris holder that was produced in the era prior to 1970 could be expected to utilize hardwood, to have a square base, and to have a hole large enough to accept a keris rather than an umbrella, additionally it was more likely to have the rather flat, dull paint used in traditional Balinese carvings, rather than the high-gloss paint that this one appears to have --- still, anything is possible. Collectors usually base their attributions of age upon what they are told by the people they buy from.

In respect of the nomination of Bhima as a candidate. Bhima has more than a single characterisation, we have Bhima or Werkudara, then there is Bratasena (Bhima as a young man), then Bhima Wanda Mimis, Bhima Wanda Lintang --- it goes on. Things are never as simple as we might like them to be. Bhima as Bratasena is often characterised with a snake, and the face of this keris holder has the Balinese characterisation of a warrior's eyes, the waist is small, as Bhima's waist should be, essentially Bhima should be depicted as an athlete, and his defining attribute is the thumbnail, something I cannot see in this keris holder. Still, it could be intended to be Bhima, but is more likely to be a warrior characterisation including some Bhima-like characteristics.

For a better understanding of the way in which the Balinese use characterisation in their art, I suggest a reading of "The Art and Culture of Bali"--- Urs Ramseyer might not go astray. For some guidance on the characteristics of wayang characters, "Rupa & Karakter Wayang Purwa"--- Heru Sujarwo is an excellent source.

Once we have some understanding of the way in which Balinese artists interpret their subject we find that it is not difficult to identify a class of character, for instance, this keris holder statue is obviously a warrior, a brave man but rather coarse, however which specific warrior is never easy to determine, and often depends upon context.

Gene, regarding the quality of Balinese carving. It has not deteriorated. In fact it has improved consistently since the Balinese realised that there was a market for it, and they absorbed the influence of European artists who lived amongst them, commencing well before WWII. But its the old story of we get what we pay for. Very good carving costs very good money, and people who just want a souvenir are usually not prepared to pay much. Because of this much of the Balinese carving that we see in the western world is not really of very good quality.

Jean, the man sitting is Javanese, I've seen a lot of these that were done in Jogja, and this is a typically Javanese style, however I'm not sure about the figure on the rather thin square base, I think from what I can see that it is probably Balinese. These keris holders did not have a place in Javanese society, but they did in Balinese society; I've never seen an old Javanese holder of this style, only new ones done for collectors.