The sunggingan motif is a scene from one of the wayang plays, I do not know exactly which one, and in my experience, if we gathered together ten people who were acknowledged experts in the wayang theatre we might well get 15 different opinions.
The hilt is most definitely not a Rojomolo hilt.
It is a Sirah Wayang hilt (Guritno P.273).
Solyom (P.32) uses English terminology:- "Samban form with wayang head"
In common usage in Solo we just refer to this hilt form as "Wayang".
The word "Sirah" means "head" in Javanese, "samban" refers to the overall form of the hilt.
There are two forms of Rojomolo hilt in Surakarta hilts, one is a planar form which to anybody but a trained person looks pretty much the same as any of a dozen other Surakarta planar forms (Guritno P.269). The other Rojomolo form has the top of the hilt carved in the form of Rojomolo, and has used the cantik baita (figurehead) of the royal barge as its model.
There is a wayang character named Rojomolo, true, but in Solo, Rojomolo is understood to mean the spirit of the Bengawan Solo (Solo River). We can see an example of this figurehead in the Musium Radyo Pustoko, this figure-head was traditionally carved for the royal barge by each crown prince before he came to the throne. See foto.
The hilt photo is of a Rojomolo hilt form that depicts the Spirit of the Bengawan.
Tunggak Semi pamor is a random pamor that is often the remnants of eroded wos wutah. "Tunggak" means "tree stump", "Tunggak Semi" means a sprouting stump, where this name can be applied to a pamor, the motif thus named is accidental, either through the forge process or because of erosion --- usually erosion --- and it can be imagined as a sprouting stump without a lot of difficulty.
The pamor in the base of this blade is an intentional pamor miring motif, some would name it pamor Ujung or others might name it Junjung Darajad.
The pamor in the body of the blade would be named by some people as Wiji Timun. There are at least two pamor motifs recognised as Wiji Timun, one has a string of "cucumber seeds" running down the center of the blade, the other has a series of "cucumber seeds" along the edges of the blade. This blade appears to be Kamardikan.
The mendak position can be corrected by dismounting hilt & mendak and using a binding of wool that will also support the mendak and bring it into line with the hilt, the pesi might need an alignment using light hammer blows on a steel surface, warm the pesi first, not hot, just warm.
|