“Old Javanese Gold: The Hunter Thompson Collection,” Yale University Art Gallery

[Gustav]

Originally Posted by rasdan

Speaking of pendongkok, to digress a bit, earlier this month I came to know that a person here in Malaysia found a gold pendongkok with ruby 4 feet in the ground using a metal detector. The weight is about 60 grams with 8 large rubies each encircled with another 8 smaller rubies. 2 of the rubies are missing. I should really purchase a metal detector to start a new hobby. Here are the images from this person's Facebook. His name is Raja Kamaruzaman.

Thank you for posting these, Rasdan! It actually should be a topic for a new thread. The early Gowa/Makassar hilts with specific Selut could indeed be a type, which started in Majapahit time and are spread to countries which stood in tributary contacts with Majapahit. Later there are locally made copies of these in Central Sumatra, Sulawesi and Sumbawa.

The treatment of motifs at the base of some of these hilts could indeed serve as an example of an early stage of development of these motifs, perhaps the earliest still graspable.