Thread: Sunggingan
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Old 8th May 2013, 02:12 PM   #6
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 6,675
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Far too hard Jussi. I do not know everything about everything, I think I understand a little bit about a little bit.

Q1. Paint. Sunggingan simply means decorative paint work. In Jawa they decorate cupboards and chests in similar fashion. The ones I've shown here have a variety of paints on them, and I have no idea at all what any of them are.

Q2. I do not know. I do know that the intricate ones are not done quickly. When I was ordering from Legiman it was not a matter of waiting a few weeks for one, I got on the end of a queue, placed the order and waited, he'd never take an order of more than 3 from me, and I waited 12 months or more for those. From memory I could get one during one visit, which was maybe 6 to 8 weeks. But actual working time? No idea.

Q3. I've never known an expert authority on sunggingan scabbards, and there is very little in print about them. I do have some notes about the hierarchical use of colours, but I don't remember the rules. The pendoks are coloured coded for kraton ranks --- red for pangeran, green for mentri , black for mourning and for unranked abdi dalem, there's another one there too I think, but I forget it. The paint work is also coloured coded --- white for pangeran I remember, I think it was yellow or gold for mentri. The whole colour thing is coded, but I'd need to look up notes, I can't remember them.
As to appraisal, it is a matter of craftsmanship:- neat, correct execution, correct combination of colours, quality application. Anybody who can appraise any craft work can appraise sunggingan work, after he has learnt the standard.

Q4. Motifs are traditional, I do not have a pattern book of these, but the same few patterns are repeated again and again, especially for kraton wear. Dress not really intended for palace wear enjoys greater freedom, and the wearer can more or less dictate what he wishes, but with kraton motifs, it comes down to the tried and true, such as alas-alasan , modang, lung-lungan, punakawan --- probably a few others too, but they don't come readily to mind. The poleng motif is usually worn by the cantung balung.
A hundred years or so ago the people who would wear this type of keris dress were regarded as "flash jacks". Show-offs, skites. "Hey here I am:- look at me!" These days I have rarely seen anybody wear a sunggingan scabbard except the cantung balungs and an occasional person at some festive occasion.

The men who paint these scabbards are usually the same ones who do wayang puppets.
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