Thread: painted Keris
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Old 18th March 2013, 03:53 AM   #1
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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I'm pretty much with Jean all the way on this.

The motif could be given as "lung-lungan", or "vines".

The sunggingan work is quite inferior, the sort of thing you'd buy already done from a market stall. I doubt that it is very old, I think its just had a hard life. The green pendok is correct colour for wear by a person in the Surakarta Karaton with the rank of mentri. The finish on these pendok is traditionally a sort of enamel that we call "kemalo", it is extremely fragile and in an older keris is almost always cracked and peeling off in lumps. More recent pendok are finished in auto enamel, which is much more durable.

Blade style is probably attributable to north coast Jawa, but the width of the blumbangan and kembang kacang form means that it would very probably be given a tangguh of Segaluh.
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