Balinese blade with pamor miring

A. G. Maisey · 2nd March 2014, 06:39 PM

Gustav, I have several examples of the Madura/Bali style wrongko and I have seen others, and I have handled perhaps thousands of the Jogja style wrongko. In my opinion there is no similarity at all between these two types. I do agree that in the profile, as seen in a photograph, there is a slight resemblance because of the rounded form, but size and cross section is very different in each.

As to the slorok, the Jogja example you have shown is a bunton, and in the hand, you would find this to be a very small, slight wrongko, The pendok is embossed, not krawang work, as is the Bali/Madura slorok.

Many old Bali pendok are made in two parts,. with a slorok, but I have yet to see one that is ornamented with krawangan. These two part Bali pendok are not removable from the wrongko, but are glued in place with damar, or sometimes fish glue, they are also quite bulky.

The topengan on this Bali/Madura keris is not really typical of the style.

By any measure this keris that Bernet Kempers chose to record is a very unusual keris. Unusual to the point of being peculiar, because firstly it is a style that is quite rare:- Bali/Madura, and secondly its mixes styles, forms and motifs. Frankly, I have a great deal of difficulty in aligning it in total with any specific location. The blade is Bali style, but not Bali execution, the hilt and scabbard, if stripped of ornamentation, are Bali/Madura, but the pendok mixes the execution and form one would expect to see from Ngayogyakarta with motifs that seem to more or less Javanese generic.

In my view this is a peculiar keris.

2nd March 2014, 06:39 PM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	Gustav, I have several examples of the Madura/Bali style wrongko and I have seen others, and I have handled perhaps thousands of the Jogja style wrongko. In my opinion there is no similarity at all between these two types. I do agree that in the profile, as seen in a photograph, there is a slight resemblance because of the rounded form, but size and cross section is very different in each. As to the slorok, the Jogja example you have shown is a bunton, and in the hand, you would find this to be a very small, slight wrongko, The pendok is embossed, not krawang work, as is the Bali/Madura slorok. Many old Bali pendok are made in two parts,. with a slorok, but I have yet to see one that is ornamented with krawangan. These two part Bali pendok are not removable from the wrongko, but are glued in place with damar, or sometimes fish glue, they are also quite bulky. The topengan on this Bali/Madura keris is not really typical of the style. By any measure this keris that Bernet Kempers chose to record is a very unusual keris. Unusual to the point of being peculiar, because firstly it is a style that is quite rare:- Bali/Madura, and secondly its mixes styles, forms and motifs. Frankly, I have a great deal of difficulty in aligning it in total with any specific location. The blade is Bali style, but not Bali execution, the hilt and scabbard, if stripped of ornamentation, are Bali/Madura, but the pendok mixes the execution and form one would expect to see from Ngayogyakarta with motifs that seem to more or less Javanese generic. In my view this is a peculiar keris.