Whenever we think of keris that are made in Madura, we think of Aeng Tong Tong. Great name. Who could forget it? Interesting place too. I remember on one visit there in about 1990 I was offered an ingot of platinum with a London bullion dealer's stamp on it. Bit outside the budget it was. Anyway, Aeng Tong Tong may be the most well known of villages involved in the Madura keris trade, but its not the only one. I do not know the present situation right at this moment, but up until a few years ago there were three villages involved in keris work, as well as a group of craftsmen who mainly worked under contract or as employees of businessmen in Suminep.
The actual blade forge work was mostly done in Lenteng Barat, the carving and blade bench work was done in Aeng Tong Tong, and the kinatah work was done in Palongan. Aeng Tong Tong was, and I guess still is the center of the operation, and the salesmen who act as the link between artisans and the market mostly seem to come from there, although they may live most of the time somewhere else.From what I could find out, very, very little of the making of wrongkos and handles went on in any of these three villages. All that dress work seemed to be in the hands of carvers centered on the main city of Sumenep, whether they were self employed , or working for businessmen, these were the people you needed to see to talk about dress.
Although it is true that keris out of the Suminep area ---the three villages involved are just a few kilometers out of Suminep--- are made in all possible styles, the only two styles that are true to original style and form are Madura and Jawa.Going back to the 1980's, they didn't even get the Jawa form quite right, that has only happened comparatively recently.The other production is really not much above souvenir quality. You don't need to be any sort of expert to see this, all you need is to have seen and handled a few genuine Bugis, Bali, and Peninsula blades.The wrongkos and hilts for areas other than Madura are not convincing in even the smallest degree, they are often very well carved, and quite artistic, but they are deficient in the detail and "feel" that is a part of the hilts and scabbards that originate from these other areas. This is understandable, as it is well known that a Central Javanese tukang jejeran who works in the Surakarta style, cannot really get even a Jogja ukiran quite right, and of course the reverse applies for a Jogja tukang jejeran.How can we expect a general carver, no matter how talented he may be, to produce hilts of various styles from various areas, and to produce them accurately and correctly?
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