Paintjob on Hulu and Warangka

[A. G. Maisey]

I think its origin is the European painted furniture of the Colonial Era, however, there are some very old sunggingan wrongkos in existence that bear decidedly Chinese style motifs, so maybe the original inspiration was painted Chinese furniture. In any case, the Javanese nobles thought painted deco was pretty cool, so they used it on keris furniture as well as house furniture.

The various motifs are borrowed from batik motifs, the colours used are colour coded --- at least in Surakarta they are --- Anthony's keris carries an alas-alasan motif which shows animals in a forest, it is painted on a white ground, which indicates wear permitted to a bupati (regent) and the pendok is red kemalo which is also for a bupati.

The painted ornamentation is usually done by the same craftsmen who paint wayang puppets.

It is found on keris other than just Solo, in Solo it is reasonably common, but from other areas, such as Bali it is very rare, and thus much more expensive.