Erik, this is exactly the same style as your topengan posted on 18 Sept.
Yes, the mask on the ones you have just posted is larger, but this is only due to the fact that your example is a more recent one, and consequently more refined. The copied photos you have just posted are older, the topengan was probably added to the wrongko later, and made to fit: your own example was constructed as an original entity.
In fact, I do have one similar to the ones you have just posted. I`ll photo it and post pics when I get a chance.Look at the wrongko itself:- it is exactly the same in your example, and in the ones you have just posted. The difference is only that in these older ones the topengan is not as neatly mated to the wrongko, but thrown together, almost as an after thought.
Have a look at the bright yellow wrongko with no pendok , in my first post of images. This is a good grass-roots example of this wrongko style. This is an old, old wrongko. It is one of the first keris I ever owned, and I have had it for about 50 years. When I bought it the atasan was in three pieces, the gandar had massive holes in it, and it was suffering from dry rot. What you see in the picture I posted is a total restoration.
As to where they originated.
In 1835 Cakra Adiningrat VIII of Madura gifted a very fine example of one of these keris to King William I of The Netherlands. I feel it is extremely unlikely that a Madurese ruler would present a Balinese keris to the sovereign who was effectively his overlord.
The Balinese style of dress that is found in Madura has a legend attached to it. Broadly, it is this:- a ruler from Bali set out invade Suminep. He reached the coast near Suminep with his troops, and began to march towards Suminep. The Suminep ruler heard of his coming, circled around behind him, smashed the boats, then encircled the Balinese invader.The ruler of Suminep gave the Balinese the option of swearing allegiance to him, and recieving land and a local woman as wife, or not swearing allegiance to him, and dying. The smart money took the oath and settled down as citizens of Suminep.These Balinese/Madurese retained their keris dress.
Over the years this dress has retained, or maybe developed very, very minor variations to the Balinese dress we see in Bali, generally it is very , very slightly more "compressed", and has a "fatter" appearance.
In fact, the keris presented to William I has a wrongko that is almost to Balinese proportions, but it is betrayed by the handle, which has the proportions of the Bali/Madura style, and it does not carry a pendok of Balinese style, manufacture, or proportion.
On all these Bali/Madura topengans I have yet to see a single one that has a pendok of Balinese proportions. All I have ever seen have pendoks with the proportions of a Jawa/Madura keris. However, I think it reasonable to assume that if people of Balinese origin used this style of keris dress in Madura, it probably had an original model back in Bali, where they came from.Be this as it may, I have yet to see a keris of this style with a Balinese pendok, or with a blade that is inarguably Balinese.
Based upon my personal observations, I am of the opinion that this form of dress is a style that was used by people of Balinese origin, living in Madura. I can find no reason to give it an East Javanese attribution, and although a similar style may have existed in Bali, I have yet to see this style of dress mated with gandar and blade of definite Balinese origin.
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