Wax (?) on the pendok

[A. G. Maisey]

It was kemalo, red lacquer, in a Central Javanese palace hierarchy this red lacquer was & is the prerogative of a bupati (regent, district governor, or a member of the royal family).

Kemalo is fragile, it needs attentive care to ensure it stops in place.

However,this looks very much like a Jogja pendok, and the wrongko & hilt are Solo, so I think what we might have here is somebody who needed to replace the Solo pendok & did not know the difference between Solo & Jogja dress.