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Old 9th February 2025, 05:01 PM   #18
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pendita65 View Post
Yes,

it's a ukiran with insect features nicely carved in ivory the face adorned with curly antennae. And maybe someone in the future can tell, we have seen a similar one in Indonesia.

Regards, Martin
I think that feature you are calling antennae look more like probiscus in that postion, but who knows. AFAIK the Balinese kocet-kocetan is the only example of a keris hilt that depicts the insect kingdom. Perhaps someone else knows of another example. We could do a lot of speculating here. Certainly there are Balinese communities in Madura and maybe this could have been made by an ethnic Balinese living in East Jawa an this was their interpretation of a kocetan hilt. Though it is missing certain features such as the multiple legs that we usually see on kocetan. But it is impossible to get inside the head of an unknown carver.
Regardless i believe it is an excellent and unique find.
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