Bali keris hilt or plokokan hilt?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

With usual qualification:- based upon what I can see in the photos.

man with bird --- keris, recent, not for wear

black hilt --- keris, recent, Lombok

naked figure --- keris

man with serpent --- pestle or small knife (pisau pemutik or temutik), however, I feel this has been done purely as a sculpture, because both knife hilts and pestle handles usually have a ferrule fitted

By "recent" I mean after WWII

An enormous amount of small sculptures in the form of hilts have been available in Bali and Lombok over the last 30 years; a lot of things produced in Lombok are sold in Bali.

Hello Alan,

thank you for comment.

Do you have a statement for the circumstance that the black hilt is bent to the wrong side? I am unsure about the age of this hilt, you may be very well correct that it is a hilt after WW2 but this hilt have clearly signs of good use. It is worked from black horn and at the touching areas becomes "white" what I have only seen by horn when it was long in use. So when my assumption about use and your assumption that it is a keris handle both are correct why is it bent to the wrong side? This question employed me every time again when I have hold it in my hand and was also the reason of this thread. Do you have seen other hilts (for keris) with this "wrong" bent?

Regards,

Detlef