To quote a dear departed friend where Bali iconography is concerned, "Even the Goodies have teeth"

That's a very nice grouping; excellent workmanship!
What or who is the figure on the right side of the image?
Great additions to the thread! Thanks :)

Rick, this thread may be of some insight.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27190

Thank you Rick.

It’s a horse.

A new addition to the collection, a Lombok handle.

Interesting and well done pieces. JustYS and Sajen do you know the approximate age of your examples?

For my edification, Sajen yours is Hanapu? JustYS from left yours are 1. Unknown 2 Vishnu and Guarda 3. Rakshasa 4. Ganesh 5. Unknown I can't see what he is holding for a clue 6. Rangda and a snack. 7. Horse with no visible wings.

Nice contemporary carvings Just. Yes, there are some folks who only collect hilts. I can see why it can be addictive.

Hello IP,

I can only guess the age of my hilt, it's used and show age, made from buffalo horn. 50 to 100 years? It's a monkey but I don't think that it should represent Hanuman.

Regards,
Detlef

Hi IP,

As David said, mines are mostly contemporary (20th/21st century hilts).

From left to right:
1. Wayang character
2. Vishnu riding Garuda
3. Rakshasa/Demon
4. Ganesha
5. The carver said Prabu (King), could be Rama but not sure
6. Rangda
7. Horse

I have just finished reading a very good book, it is a translation from French of the ethnographic accounts of Pierre Dubois, Helen Creese, an Australian academic is the author, the title is "Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century".

Much of the content was familiar to me from other reading that I have done, but all the same there was a lot, a real lot, of things I did not know.

The reason why I have mentioned it here is that I now understand why it is that identification of the characters portrayed in Balinese totogan hilts is somewhere between difficult & impossible in many cases. Often even the carvers are not aware of the character they are carving.

A bit peculiar?

Well, in the book I just mentioned I discovered that way back in the early 19th century in Bali, the Brahmins absolutely controlled the depiction of totogan characters, they would provide a carver with a description, a sketch, or a rough example, sometimes an old example, and the carver would carve it to the Brahmin's instructions. They did not know what they were carving, they only knew what the Brahmin client wanted.

Another factor to consider is this:- even if the name of the totogan character has been correctly given, we still do not know exactly who the hilt is supposed to represent, it is very likely to be the grand father or father of somebody.

So it is perhaps best not to get too caught up in IDing Bali hilt characters, in the past, and through to today, it is a guessing game.

I have just learned that the hilt is a representation of Putri Mandalika a Sasak princess whose figure overlaps and someone is identified with the one of Parvati . The goddess is worshipped by the Sasak population of Lombok but also on Bali.


I got this from a new friend , Duncan, who is a very knowledgeable hilt connoisseur , Very thankful to him.

hilt

Are you sure this is a Kris hilt?:confused:

I think that this may be a the hilt ( or rather the handle) of a Betelnut chisel or cutter

they are generally more ornate and have often this truncated cone shape

these were sold (terminated auction, therefore allowed) and in my view are similar

I am in agreement with Milandro. More likely a Betel Nut tool.

Yes, pelecok.

I'm not sure. We thought it was a hilt. Maybe the Betelnut chisel and Keris sometimes share a handle by native users.

No, I'm sorry HughChen, but a keris hilt & a pelecok are two entirely different things & they do not share hilts. The pelecok is a tool, the keris is a socio-religious icon & a weapon.

There can be no doubt about this.

Hello Chen,

I am with the others, it's a handle for a betel pestle, see here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ighlight=betel

Regards,
Detlef

Thank you for correcting of my misunderstanding. Based on those pics,T think maybe this horn one is also not a hilt, while the wooden one is a Balinese hilt.

Hilts of very high level.
 

items of a finished auction. Very high quality.

I'm not sure what in Detlef's link gave you that impression. IMO this horn figural hilt is indeed a keris hilt.

These are nice carvings Hugh, but honestly i would hesitate to label them as VERY high quality. First of all, usually the highest quality would be reserved for ivory, not only a more valuable material, but one that lends itself to a more detailed level of carving than bone. But even bone can be carved to a higher level of carving than the examples you show. Please understand i am not saying those examples are undesirable. As i stated, they are really nice hilts that i would surely welcome into my collection. But i just wanted you to be aware that they are not the highest level of Balinese carving skill.

Here are a couple of rather nice Bali hilts carved in bone. These two are contemporary carving which i believe are done with moose bone, which has become a popular medium for contemporary Balinese carvers. I believe the detail on these later carvings is fairly high quality.

Hi David,

I guess Chen goes with the ferrule! ;)

Regards,
Detlef

Oh, my bad actually. I completely missed the small photo at the top of the page.
Frankly i'm not sure what that is a hilt for, but yes, the ferrule on that hilt would be unusual for a Balinese keris hilt. :p

Post #229.

The small pic at top left:- not keris, could be pelecok, most likely a knife hilt.

Thank you all. yes, the pelecok gives me hint.

The wooden figural hilt with strange back head was sold last month in a Chinese ancient coin auction. Nobody except me knew what it was. Even the seller just introduced it as a carved wood. I wanted to buy it, but someone told me it was not really old, but artificially aged. So I quit.

Yes David, I agree they are of high quality. But it's much easier to do high quality with electronic tools contemporarily.And New ones are open to sale in scale, whereas old good ones are difficult to find. Because of that, I think old carved hilts are still much more attractive to me.



I agree that ivory is always better, but ivory can cause some legal confusion so I'm afraid to be so into it that I cannot control myself to try to get one at legal risk.

It's a pleasure for me to see these high-quality carvings you've provided. Are these made of bone or ivory? It's beyond my ability to tell which are better, or to Rank them in terms of quality. If someone can do it to help me understand better, it will be much appreciated. In my naive eyes, I think they are as good as the pair I represent which was sold in a French aucion. I found them sold in very high price. I apologize for my lack of artistic sensitivity. Due to my sluggish appreciation ability, I have to rely on your expert view as an indicator to understand the quality of something. I myself can only tell which is good and which is not good, still lacking the ability to tell how good and which one is better .

I believe that we need to differentiate between quality of execution, & quality of material, the two things are separate & different.

Post #81 in this thread is a hilt of mine, it is high quality material, 22K gold, and superb craftsmanship. This hilt displays both elements of quality in the single item.

With other hilts we should, I believe, make it clear if we are commenting on the material, or on the craftsmanship.

There are very very beautiful. Thank you for letting us see them!