Old Bali keris

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Because of this, I doubt that the keris which were in European public collections during WWII were stripped of anything.

One might also ask why a fair amount of old Bali sheaths seem to have been stripped of their pendoks....

[A. G. Maisey]

David, my mention of gold was in response to Asomotif's comment:-

And a lot of them where without uwer. But then again. This does not proof much. Considering that those keris are all pre WW2, one can imagine that for instance during WW2 museum personel would trade off the metal and gems for food / cigarettes and other daily needs.


In old-time Bali, Jawa, and other parts of maritime SE Asia, silver was never particularly highly prized for ornamentation. Gold had prestige value, and respect value:- the rulers of the first kingdom of Mataram would give gifts of gold to respected visitors and retainers. People who could not afford gold for ornamentation, either for their keris, or for personal use, preferred copper, bronze or brass because this could be polished to give the appearance of gold, when the occasion demanded.

This preference explains the almost total absence of old silver uwer, and for that matter, old silver items used for personal adornment, coming from Bali and Jawa.

Yes, we can find silver uwer and mendak, but I doubt that I have ever seen a silver uwer which dated from pre-colonial times, in other words, from the period prior to European influence on the preferences of the native populations.

The actual value involved in a uwer that is not gold is inconsequential, you have a few grams of brass, and half a dozen fourth rate stones or pieces of glass; even if the metal were to be silver, again all you have is a few grams of silver.Hardly enough to buy a single slice of bread or a half-smoked cigarette.

It is always possible that all the keris which Asomotif saw without uwers in the museum collections, had originally had gold uwers, and these would certainly have been worth liberating from museum custody, but bearing in mind the great scarcity of Balinese gold uwers, I am inclined to doubt that there were all that many gold uwer fitted to these keris which are now missing uwer.

Accordingly, I consider that it would have been very likely that the vast bulk of Balinese keris that entered European collections prior to WWII had either no uwer, or a brass uwer.A few might have had gold, but almost none would have had silver.

I doubt that the missing uwers on Balinese keris which entered European collections pre-WWII are missing because they were removed during the dire times of WWII.

Pendok are another matter.

The quantity of material in a pendok is considerable. In a full Balinese bunton pendok there is between 150 grams and 200 grams of silver, depending upon design, thickness, and craftsmanship. At today's rates, that's plus $200 of material alone.

However, the same argument relating to pre-colonial native preferences still applies, and I personally have only seen gold and brass pendok on Balinese keris that can definitely be dated to pre-1900, in fact, the pendok on these old keris is a rareity, most had no pendok at all.

Keris that have been dressed during the 20th century often seem to use pendok, my guess is that this is because of the unavailability of suitable wood for an ornamental gandar.

It is well established that in all keris bearing cultures the value of ornamentation on a keris would rise and fall with the fortunes of an owner, however, in Bali we have another problem with pendoks.

Probably the most popular form of old Bali pendok is a very lightweight open fronted style that is glued to the gandar. These old lightweight pendok were very subject to damage, so when they became damaged they were often simply discarded. This is the reason why we sometimes see evidence of a pendok having once been fitted, but that is now missing.

Regarding the atasan.

When I first saw the photo of this keris the very first thing that struck me was the incongruity of the burl atasan. It sticks out like a sore thumb.To speculate upon why it has been fitted, or who may have fitted it, is a little pointless if we are working only from a photograph. I am not good enough to identify minor variations in carving, finishing or fitting techniques from a photo. Thus, I am not suggesting anything in this regard.

If I look at the general lines of the carving, there is no question but that is very skilled work. This is a very nicely carved atasan. From what I can see it has been expertly fitted to the gandar.

I doubt that it has been made by other than a Balinese tukang wrongko. However, I equally doubt that it was made for wear by a Balinese person.

[David]

Thanks Alan. Very interesting info, especially in regards to silver...

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, in olden times in these areas, silver did not appear to be very highly regarded at all. Gold was, and it seemed to be splashed around in an almost profligate manner, but of course we need to understand this in the context of Javanese/Balinese society, where allegiance was purchased rather than based upon emotion or tradition. If your lord or ruler could not protect you, you replaced him.

It has clearly been a different situation altogether in Bali since probably the early years of the 20th century, and in Jawa since probably the early years of the 19th century. In Jawa silver has obviously been so popular since the 19th century that they even adopted the use of an inexpensive lookalike:- mamas. Good quality mamas can be so convincing as silver that you really do need to test it to tell the difference. A lot of dealers who can't tell the difference sell it as silver, and back in the 1950's and 1960's I bought a number of keris that had "native silver" pendoks. This "native silver" was mamas --- but I didn't find out about this until many years later.

Silver value varies enormously, so its is arguable as to just how good it is as investment property. Back in the 1970's the Hunts tried to corner the market and this drove silver up to about $50 an ounce in 1980. Then its value dropped away again, and currently it is again heading skywards. This seems to have been the story of silver throughout history. Gold is far more stable.

Those of us from a European background seem to think in terms of gold and silver --- Franz Lehar even wrote a song with that title --- but as far as I can understand, silver did not ride on the same carriage as gold in old-time Javanese/Balinese thought.

PS--- to be fair, Franz the rock star did not compose that waltz for the metals, but for a ball organised by a a Hungarian princess Pauline Metternich