Some questions about Balinese hilt cup.

[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, please see my post #12, this is what I wrote relevant to the kekandikan form:-

"Gustav, I do not know a Javanese wrongko form that has the same or similar form to a Balinese kekandikan.

This is not to say that such a Javanese wrongko form has never existed, it is to say that I do not know of it, & have never seen any Javanese wrongko that is able to be classified as "kekandikan" using Balinese standards.

The kekandikan in post #6 would be classified as kekandikan in Bali, & I cannot see anything in the complete keris dress to indicate a Javanese origin."

I have seen & handled truly thousands of wrongkos, I cannot recall having ever seen a single Javanese made wrongko that could be classified as kekandikan, using Balinese standards. Not one.

Of course, my memory could be at fault, but I honestly do not believe so --- true, these days I have to think really hard to remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I can recall things from 20, 30 70 years ago, & sometimes with golden clarity.

However, once again I would like to draw your attention to what I actually wrote. I have given my opinion that the two keris in question definitely & without question do qualify as the Balinese kekandikan form. But at no time have I questioned your own opinion of where they were collected.

How could I ever question this?

I was not there when they were collected, I was not there when you purchased them, & it is entirely possible that at the time of purchase you were given information by the seller that you choose to believe.

Where they came from before they appeared in Europe is not up for discussion, nor argument, I accept your opinion.

Given that there is no dispute about where these wrongkos were collected, there remains the question of where they were made. Since this form is associated with Balinese royalty & nobility, & since it is a formal style in Bali, it seems reasonable to assume that both these wrongkos were made in Bali.

It does seem to be highly unlikely that this style could have been worn by a Javanese man in Javanese society, but it could well have been worn by a Balinese man anywhere.

As I have commented, the keris in post #11 is a mix of parts or styles, I have not seen a Balinese keris with a gandar like the one on the post # 11 keris, but I have seen a similar gandar on a North Coast Jawa keris.

In olden times there were a lot of Balinese people working in Jawa. Bali was a major supplier of slaves, the women were highly prized as both wives & servants, the men were more robust than Javanese men & were prized for heavy labour & as guards. Moving up the social scale a bit from debt slaves, marriages between noble and royal families, and also between merchant families from Jawa and other places was not at all uncommon. Going back for more than 1000 years, Jawa & other places in SE Asia were not isolated from one another, people moved from one place to another, & they took their keris with them.

True, movement from one place to another was not as easy & not as fast as it is now, for this reason lower status people perhaps did not move more than a day's walk from where they were born, but people higher up the pecking order & people who were items of trade, did move or were moved.

In the Mangkunegaraan palace in Solo, there is an exhibition of keris that were worn by Balinese men employed as guards, the dress on these keris is a mix of Balinese style & Javanese style. I once owned a keris that had a Balinese bebondolan gambar & a Surakarta gandar & pendok, I had purchased this keris from a private seller in Solo, it had belonged to one of his ancestors who had been Balinese, but who had moved to Jawa Tengah some time before WWI.

The location where something has been collected is not any indication of where it originally came from, however, since the keris is both a societal icon & a personal identifier, that is to say it indicates the origin & status of the custodian and/or wearer, it can continue to function in a society other than its society of origin. The factor that indicates the origin of a keris, both the blade & the dress, is style, because it is the style that gives evidence of the place of production.

As for the photo in the book "The Javanese keris" the same reasoning as above applies equally to that keris, it may have been collected in Ngayogyakarta, but where was it made, & for whom? We do not know. All we know is where it was collected, & that is no indicator at all to its origin nor its previous ownership.

If this gambar style was indeed a Central Javanese style at, or prior to, the date of its collection, why is it that we do not regularly come across examples in Javanese markets? Thousands upon thousands of old Javanese wrongkos often broken beyond repair, in the garbage bins of market place sellers, but never have I seen an example of this kekandikan wrongko style in a garbage bin --- & yes, I used to regularly look in the throwaway stuff. Nor on a keris for that matter. Why is the style unknown to Javanese tukangs wrongko now?

These two kekandikans under discussion may have been collected in Jawa, I accept without question your opinion that they were, but this style is Balinese, & has a place in Balinese society, it has no place in Javanese society.

[Gustav]

Alan, thank you again!

I am sorry, but I don't believe the "Kekandikan" Wrongko from #6 and Wrongko #11 from my collection are made in Bali or Lombok, and in my opinion they are made in West Java or Pasisir. Why?

Both Gambar have a quite long neck. Such neck is absolutely atypical for a Balinese Gambar.

The front part (the Gandhik side, if Keris would be in Wrongko) is similar to Balinese Kekandikan, but also to older Pasisir forms, - the back part, the "axe", is completely different - it is concave and has an angle, which also is absolutely atypical for a Balinese/Lombok Kekandikan.

Attached pictures of Wrongko from #11 besides a regular Lombok Kekandikan, Gambar from #6 and #11, and a picture of Wrongko from #6 together with other Pasisir Keris from that collection.

Apparently this kind of Wrongko is made in West Java or Pasisir again, attached a recent example, and one, which is recent or refurbished older one.

[Gustav]

Regarding the seldom seen Central Javanese form, I have no difficulties to find another one in van Duuren's book, and yet another one from ACM in Singapore, and I even have not started to comb the bigger databases for related forms.

Why it is seldom seen? I guess, because it most likely was a "special" form (the diamond studded golden Pendoks with green emaille tell about high level Kraton context - the Singapore one is of course different - much simpler Pendok, Madurese hilt, blade actually being a Javanese interpretation of a Balinese Keris), perhaps, like you wrote, at the beginning linked to a certain person - and stopped to be made quite early, most likely already before 1900. I guess every Tukang Wrongko has his own, quite specified repertoire, and if he stops to work and has no follower, that special, rarely encountered form might simply die out. Everything boils down to a few, easily recognizable shapes.

[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, you have very nicely given a perfect example of something that I believe most of us understand:- it is very difficult, sometimes impossible to provide supportable comment on an object in the absence of adequate information. When complete data concerning an object is not provided we tend to assume that what we can see in a photograph is indicative of what we cannot see in a photograph.

In the case of the wrongkos you have shown it was unknown prior to your post #21 that these wrongkos had a reverse face that differed from & was unknown in Balinese wrongkos. Now we have that information, then we must question whether this kekandikan form was indeed produced in Bali, and I can now agree with you that these wrongkos were probably not produced in Bali.

The longish gambar extension is not unknown in Balinese wrongkos, but it certainly is not common. I have seen & owned a few Balinese wrongkos with a longish gambar extension, I tend to think that most of, if not all the ones I have seen were most probably Bali-Lombok.

So now we have a Balinese form of wrongko that has been made & used somewhere else. You have offered West Jawa & North Coast Jawa as possibilities. That seems to me to be a reasonable hypothesis. All we need now is some sort of solid evidence that this kekandikan form was used by Javanese or Sundanese people.

I do not know the norms attached keris wear in Sunda, nor in North coast Jawa, but I do know the norms that are attached now, & in the past, to the wearing of a keris in Central Jawa. If this form of wrongko were to be worn anywhere, who do we think might have worn it, or for what type of wear would it be suited?

When we think about wrongko forms, both in Jawa & in Bali, we need to relate the form to the person who will use it and to the occasion where it can be worn & cannot be worn. It is not just a matter of personal preference. Thus, when we encounter a wrongko form that is not able to be fitted into the rank/occasion matrix, we are left with questions as to just how legitimate that aberrant form may be. On the very few occasions when I have seen a wrongko in use that does not fit the rank/occasion matrix, that wrongko was being worn by a Chinese businessman.

Since the mid-18th century the keris in all of the Island of Jawa has occupied the place of an item of dress, so all forms of keris dress need to be associated with either a particular societal rank, or a particular occasion for wear. Where do we think this particular form of wrongko might be acceptable for wear & by whom?

When you do comb the bigger data bases, if you find that you can provide answers to my questions it would be much appreciated.

One last question. The Singapore keris. Is the Singapore keris the 7 luk blade with kinatah & an ivory hilt & Ngayogya pendok?

If so, why do you think it is a Javanese interpretation of a Balinese form? To me, this keris seems to be classifiable as condong campur, & tangguh PBX. The greneng is a variation, certainly, but a keris of this quality would have been produced to specific order & in such cases the client has the freedom to specify whatever he wants, & the higher up the pecking order, the greater that freedom was & still is.

This raises another question, a couple of these Jawa kekandikan have pendok fitted, those pendoks appear to be Ngyogya pendoks, the hilts also appear to be Ngyogya.Perhaps Ngyogya might be worth a closer look. But then it becomes a bit difficult to relate Ngayogyakarta to Sunda & the North Coast.

In respect of green kemalo (enamel) this does not indicate a high rank, it indicates a middle rank, that of mantri.