Gold Leaf Sheath and hilt

[milandro]

I’ve recently acquired a very nice (to me) Balinese keris , the sarong and hilt are made of wood and have been marbleized ( for “MY" lack of a better word perhaps someone knows the proper name of this kind of effect) with the application of Gold Leaf.

The worn out effect is very fetching (to me, I am sure I’m going to be given some contrary opinions) I suppose that it was intended from the start the give this effect or if it became like this by use I am still thrilled with its looks which obviously tell a “ story".

The blade is very rusty and will need some work before revealing the hidden secrets also there was no mendak and I’ve already ordered one in gold plate brass and red stones (or perhaps let’s call them “paste”). Anyway is this common?

[JustYS]

Hi Milandro,

I believe the word you are looking for to describe your warangka is Sunggingan.

If you search sunggingan in this forum you’ll find plenty of threads.

Here is one of them:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=Sunggingan


Cheers,

[milandro]

Thank you @JustYS.

I am not sure that my kris falls under this category, please correct me if I am wrong, at least not from the examples that I can see from the thread which you quoted.

Unless the word Sunggingan means any colored or painted or gilded sarong/hilt ( in that same then this is Sunggingan) regardless from the depiction or technique, what I can see in that thread are polychrome sarongs/hilts with figures or decorations painted.

[David]

I am not sure if Sunggingan would apply here, but others might know better.
Gold leaf has often been applied when creating Sunggingan dress, but i have always considered the term to apply to painted figures and designs, not a complete covering with gold leaf or paint as this dress displays. The word means "paintings" i believe, or something to that effect.
I don't image that this "marbled" effect, as you referred to it, was the original intention. This is most probably due to wear and age.
Looking forward to seeing the blade.

[milandro]

I think I have seen somewhere a similar sarong with the same effect (why put the red underneath if you didn’t want it to show it through the cracks of the gold leaf? If that wasn’t intentional they may as well left just some whitewash background primer ) but the color combination was gold and green.

I can’t remember where I have seen this though. It may have been at the home of one of the several “ serial collectors “ that I have been privileged with visiting since I started my interest for the Keris.

One particular gentleman whom resides in Arnhem by the one of the borders with Germany had the most impressive collection and it may have been his place. Unfortunately I could only stay 15 minutes since I had a previous engagement .

I am afraid the blade is not really impressive neither for size nor for design or maybe even pamor (which I will see only at a later stage)

[A. G. Maisey]

When we get this gold leaf overlay it is called "prada" (pron, "prodo").

Gilded work is correctly called "pradan", but it is commonly called just "prada", which means "gold leaf".

I have never seen quite this effect, usually it will be combined in small amounts with sunggingan work. We often find prada work on wall plaques (blawong) & keris stands (ploncon, jagrak).

[milandro]

happy to have something not all that common and had the privilege to show it here.

[Battara]

Certainly easy to apply but hard to protect from wear.

[Rick]

I'd like to see more pictures. If it's really wear and age or intentional, it seems quite randomly placed.
Could there be any significance in the colors and which one covers the other?

[milandro]

While I think that the gilding was never covering the entire sarong, I also believe that there are clear wear signs ( due for example being worn in a belt or kept in a Ploncon ), as for which color in on top of which it is clear that the gilding is above the orange, brick-color , undercoat. The Hilt shows also signs of some Black sign of some sort on both face but It is undecipherable.

As for the orange color under the guilding, my wife ( which received a formal art training and studied art history although not specialized in the arts from the east) said that it is not infrequent to guild over an undercoat red or orange because the undercoat tends to influence the hue of the gold leaf, so to show it as “ warmer”

I’ve acquired this keris from a couple whom used to reside in Indonesia since the ’70 their home was chockablock with Items from the archipelago with many of the pieces being certainly antiques, they were not dealer or any such thing, but retired people moving to a smaller house and selling part ( I saw the boxes where the gentleman showed me items not for sale which he was taking with him).

I am showing this to you, certainly not “ off”, for the sole purpose of learning and discussing. Whichever the findings or opinions I will take on board but I am very happy with this piece the way it is .

[A. G. Maisey]

Rick, you have asked about the yellow gold & red symbolism.

In respect of this keris , I think we are probably just looking at artistic expression, but when we begin to scratch around into Balinese & Javanese symbolism we can usually come up with something.

Very often this "something" is completely misunderstood by the outsider who is trying to interpret it, so I'm not offering the little explanation below as an answer to your question, just something that me seems pretty obvious.

Some time ago somebody asked me why the back of Balinese wrongkos/gandars were often painted yellow, I provided this opinion below.

But although yellow is a favourite colour for the back of wrongkos, other colours occur too, and red is perhaps the second most popular colour for painting the back of Bali wrongkos/gandars.

Red is the colour of Brahma.

What follows is not an answer Rick, but it is something that might be thought upon.

"*****, you asked why the back of keris scabbards are painted yellow.

I don't know, but i've given some thought to the question, and here are some connections that can be made:-

the pusaka keris joins the present custodian with his ancestors and those of the current generation

Hari Kuningan is the end of Galungan, and is the day when the ancestors return to the other world after visiting earth during Galungan.

Kuning = yellow, Hari Kuningan = Yellow Day

Offerings to the ancestors on Hari Kuningan include yellow rice and tend towards the yellow spectrum

Balinese attach symbolism to colours, and yellow is the colour of Mahadewa, and of the west

In the Mahabharata, Siwa is better known as Mahadewa, that is, the highest of the Gods, Siwa is the Destroyer, who frees man from this world and lets the spirit return through Brahma's creation to another cycle of life. Mahadewa's weapon is the nagapasa and his vehicle is the dragon (naga).

The keris is an icon of Siwa.

So :-

keris>Siwa> Mahadewa> yellow>naga> keris>ancestors>keris

looking at these iconic relationships it seems to me to obvious why the backs of keris scabbards are painted yellow."