Leif, my very first keris was a rather old Javanese blade that had a hole worn through one of the sogokan. I also had a few people that identified this as "complong" but the truth of the matter is that true complong is as Alan described and not merely a hole worn through a blade from excessive age. It took be a little while before i understood that and currently in the keris world i believe there are many people who think these simple wear holes are complong. I believe this was probably started by dubious dealers who hoped to encourage sales on some of the more worn out items they had in stock. Unfortunately, like many misconceptions about keris in the marketplace, this one has gained some traction so i have encountered this misunderstanding of complong operating within numerous keris collecting communities.
About your Cecanginan hilt, i have attached a few more examples i found on the internet. I've chosen to use your spelling here not because i believe Alan is incorrect (i generally would defer to his opinion on such language issues), but simply because i could not find many hilts of this type using the "cenangan" spelling in my searches. It seems that you will find some with relatively smooth sides under that spelling, but not this specific bumpy version you show here.
I doubt that yours ever held stones in the little divots on your bumps. They don't look like settings to me and i don't think i've ever seen this form with stones set in the bumps before anyway.
|