Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Java keris with unusual sarung, blade puthut

A. G. Maisey · 30th September 2018, 10:29 PM

Anybody here remember The Grinch?

How about Ebenezer Scrooge?

Well, during my life time I've been confused with both these loveable characters, so if anybody wishes to address me as "Grinchy" or "Eben", that will not offend me in the slightest.

There are several things that disturb me with this keris:-

1) the mendak is old, it looks as if it has been in place for a long time, but it is incomplete, I believe that when the hilt is removed the mendak will be found to be damaged

2) the wrongko is one-of-a kind, it reminds me a little bit of a style that is usually attributed to Banyumas, but it is not exactly the same as that style, just tending towards it. I do not know how many keris I have seen and handled, but it is certainly into the five figure level. I have never seen this exact style previously. Why?

3) the pendok is an old fitting to this wrongko, but it had been used on a different wrongko before it was fitted to this one.

4) I have real problems with the blade, the thing that immediately strikes my eye is that the tail of the gonjo declines to the blade, this characteristic is associated with a North Coast classification, however, there is an odo-odo, and that should not be present with a gonjo of this style.
Then there is the mating of the gonjo to the wilah, it is very imprecise, except where the puthut meets the gonjo, and the puthut itself has much cleaner and sharper edges than the edges of the gonjo. Why?
The surface of the wilah and the surface of the gonjo do not have a similar degree of polish. Why?

This ensemble raises far too many questions for me. I look at it, and I immediately remember the very large old Tuban blades that were re-manufactured into more desirable forms in the late colonial period. I am not saying that this blade is one of these re-manufactures, but I am saying that it displays too many inconsistencies and raises too many questions. One thing that is rather amusing is that these large old Tuban blades that nobody wanted in the past are now extremely desirable and quite expensive collector's items, for the simple reason that not many of them survived the re-manufacture process.

The man who became Panembahan Harjonagoro (Go Tik Swan) was a renowned collector of Javanese and Indonesian art, especially keris. He was regarded by many people who were outside the core Solonese keris community as perhaps the greatest authority on the Javanese keris during post-WWII period. By the dealer community in Solo he was regarded as a very desirable client, for the simple reason that he was a 99% certain probability to buy any unusual keris that was presented to him. This of course had the predictable effect, and several talented craftsmen were very grateful to God and their ancestors for giving them Go Tik Swan.

Whenever I see a keris I have not seen before I remind myself that I am not anywhere near as wealthy as was Go Tik Swan.

30th September 2018, 10:29 PM	#6
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,700	Anybody here remember The Grinch? How about Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, during my life time I've been confused with both these loveable characters, so if anybody wishes to address me as "Grinchy" or "Eben", that will not offend me in the slightest. There are several things that disturb me with this keris:- 1) the mendak is old, it looks as if it has been in place for a long time, but it is incomplete, I believe that when the hilt is removed the mendak will be found to be damaged 2) the wrongko is one-of-a kind, it reminds me a little bit of a style that is usually attributed to Banyumas, but it is not exactly the same as that style, just tending towards it. I do not know how many keris I have seen and handled, but it is certainly into the five figure level. I have never seen this exact style previously. Why? 3) the pendok is an old fitting to this wrongko, but it had been used on a different wrongko before it was fitted to this one. 4) I have real problems with the blade, the thing that immediately strikes my eye is that the tail of the gonjo declines to the blade, this characteristic is associated with a North Coast classification, however, there is an odo-odo, and that should not be present with a gonjo of this style. Then there is the mating of the gonjo to the wilah, it is very imprecise, except where the puthut meets the gonjo, and the puthut itself has much cleaner and sharper edges than the edges of the gonjo. Why? The surface of the wilah and the surface of the gonjo do not have a similar degree of polish. Why? This ensemble raises far too many questions for me. I look at it, and I immediately remember the very large old Tuban blades that were re-manufactured into more desirable forms in the late colonial period. I am not saying that this blade is one of these re-manufactures, but I am saying that it displays too many inconsistencies and raises too many questions. One thing that is rather amusing is that these large old Tuban blades that nobody wanted in the past are now extremely desirable and quite expensive collector's items, for the simple reason that not many of them survived the re-manufacture process. The man who became Panembahan Harjonagoro (Go Tik Swan) was a renowned collector of Javanese and Indonesian art, especially keris. He was regarded by many people who were outside the core Solonese keris community as perhaps the greatest authority on the Javanese keris during post-WWII period. By the dealer community in Solo he was regarded as a very desirable client, for the simple reason that he was a 99% certain probability to buy any unusual keris that was presented to him. This of course had the predictable effect, and several talented craftsmen were very grateful to God and their ancestors for giving them Go Tik Swan. Whenever I see a keris I have not seen before I remind myself that I am not anywhere near as wealthy as was Go Tik Swan.