MADURA ornamental hilts
 

Another pics, of Madura ornamental hilts. Some old maduran hilts were carefully carved...

Another old Madura ornamental hilt, made of ivory...

This is the most common form of maduran (ivory) hilt, still ornamental but slimmer...

Madura ornamental ivory hilt too...

nice...very nice hilts.

Nice hilts as well as interesting thread topic!
Here are two other variations of the Donoriko hilt.
I would love to see more variations of this hilt.

Michael

Nice hits Ganja and Michael
Michael some variations (one is ivory,other is timoho kendit,the last is the top of a wood hit from kraton)

Thanks for sharing Ganja and Marco!
Somebody else with a variation of this hilt?

Michael

I possibly may be able to show some other variations, but I have not had the time to look at my Madura hilts, nor to photograph them.

Many years ago a friend who was associated with the kraton in Sumenep told me that hilts bearing the flying horse were Suminep origin, and hilts that bore the crown were Pamekesan origin.

Hilts that bore neither of these symbols could be from anywhere, and were probably the property of people who were not associated with either Suminep or Pamekesan.

I have now had time to select a few Madura hilts for posting here. I've had a look at something more than 100 Madura hilts, and I have selected a few that I consider to be a little different to most, in some way or another.
Each hilt is shown in two dimensions and each hilt is the subject of a separate post.

Hilt 2

Hilt 3

Hilt 4

Hilt 5

Hilt 6

Hilt 7

Hilt 8

Hilt 9

Hilt 10

Hilt 11

Hilt 12

Hilt 13

Hilt 14

Hilt 15

Hilt 16

Hilt 17

Hilt 18

Last one for moment

Nice hits. N.8 i like a lot

Here's another motif.

Thanks a lot
 

Michael, Marco, Alan and Jonng, thanks a lot for your beautiful pics of maduran hilts. Very useful comparison...

Ganjawulung

I selected these hilts for posting because, as I have said, each hilt is a little bit different in some way from the usual run of Madura hilts. I paid no attention to quality, only to whether there was something a bit different in form or motif.When we come down one level, and look at the individual components of the various motifs, some of the inclusions in Madura hilt motifs can create much food for thought.

Here is yet another . ;) :)

Thank you, Rick. Not only cock'c head. Sometimes I see a horse head hilt too. And the ornament bearing figure of flying horse as Alan mentioned, called by maduran: "kuda panolih" (picture below), and also crown ornament in another one...

Horse-head Hilt
 

And this picture below, a contemporary Maduran hilt, a horse-head hilt...

Thanks all for sharing.

I am puzzled by the bird-headed Janggelan hilts (# 3, 11, 15 of Alan's hilts).
It's strange that I haven't seen them represented in the European old collections.
Could they be later than the other variations, did they became more popular after independence or are they just much more rare?

Michael

Pretty scarce things, Michael. Some of the hilts I've posted here are about as rare as you can get, I've got well over 100 Madura hilts, I've been collecting hilts for as long as I've collected keris. A couple of what I've shown here are probably not going to be seen anywhere else.I can assure you that you are not looking at recent hilts.

Here another (Maybe the pattern of the top of this kind of Madura hits comes from a parrot's beck ;) )

Many beautiful hilts! Thanks to all for sharing. I've always wondered how come there are so many loose Madurese hilts around, and so little of them attached to Madurese kerises?

Regarding this hilt 2 from Alan, I would like to ask if the selut/mendak is a Madurese style?

Thanks.

The selut + mendak on #2 is made in one piece, that is, the selut is not separate to the mendak.The mendak section of this fitting is similar to some Madura mendak that I have. However, although this fitting is old, it does not appear to be as old as the hilt, and the patination under the selut seems to indicate that originally a different selut may have been fitted.I do not think that this fitting can be regarded as typical of a Madura style, even though it does give some indication that it is of Madura manufacture.