For comment

[A. G. Maisey]

Things are pretty slow in the warung at the moment --- maybe the coffee is a trifle too bitter lately --- anyway, to break the boredom I've dredged up some old pictures from my files.

I rarely publish anything from my own collection, unless I wish to sell it, but I've had a think about this, and the way I see things, it is OK to publish, provided I do not publish the blade, which is the keris, the dress is only like clothing.

This keris --- and maybe a few more --- are from my collection, but they are not for sale, and I have no plans to sell them, so the blades will not be shown.

Any comments are welcome, that's the reason I've put up the pic.

[ariel]

Alan,
This is like showing a Miss Universe contestant wearing niqab and abaya.

[A. G. Maisey]

Perhaps, and possibly for a similar reason.

[mariusgmioc]

Hello Alan,

Where is the dress from? Madura?

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Marius, acquired in 1980's from a resident of a village near Sumenep.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I rarely publish anything from my own collection, unless I wish to sell it, but I've had a think about this, and the way I see things, it is OK to publish, provided I do not publish the blade, which is the keris, the dress is only like clothing.

I fully understand this philosophy and have, for the most part, followed a similar path over the years, but lately i have found i have been breaking this "rule" a bit more than usual (and honestly i feel a twinge of guilt whenever i do). I believe that as i get older my desire to understand more about each of my keris becomes more an imperative. Unfortunately, due to my geographic location, i don't have the advantage of gathering with groups of knowledgable people or even, for that matter, with even a single person who i can show and discuss my collection with and receive and useful feedback. So that leaves only these public internet venues where i can gather the knowledge of other about the these artifacts that i hold so dear. That said, there are still a good number of keris in my collection that i will probably never show in these public forums.
Still, understanding that this is just a fashion show, it might be helpful if we could see some details of the fashions a bit better for the sake of the discussion. Could you show us some close-ups?
Would it be fair to say that this type of wrongko would fall under the category of "Folk Art" dress in the same way as the Gabilan form?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David

Would it be fair to say that this type of wrongko would fall under the category of "Folk Art" dress in the same way as the Gabilan form?

When I am not wrong it's a capil wrongko. Very nice!

[A. G. Maisey]

David, I would like to give you some close ups, but the way these images came into being --- "these images":- I have five, which I will put up one at a time --- was to provide an illustration of something for a friend, I did them on the trot, P&S camera, Canon S95. To give you acceptable close ups would take time that at the moment I do not have. Why not crop out what you want to see and run it through Photoshop?

The reason I put this first one into the Forum was just to see if people would talk to one another again, or if everybody had died while I was not looking.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Why not crop out what you want to see and run it through Photoshop?

While i understand about how they came about i am afraid the PS, as magical a tool as it is, will not allow these to be enlarged without a certain amount of pixelation. It is easy enough these days to simply enlarge an image right on the screen so i can see what a PS enlargement would look like in an instant.
No worries, i just thought it would be nice to see close-ups if you had them.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The reason I put this first one into the Forum was just to see if people would talk to one another again, or if everybody had died while I was not looking.

LOL! I think it's just a little slow for the moment. I have also noted, being a Facebook user/abuser, that there are at least 2 very active FB keris pages operating at the moment and i believe some people may have gravitated over that way.

Also, to remind you of my unanswered question...
Would it be fair to say that this type of wrongko would fall under the category of "Folk Art" dress in the same way as the Gabilan form?

[A. G. Maisey]

Detlef, I do not know the correct name for this wrongko. I did ask the previous owner if it had a special name, but he was very much a village man he did not speak nor understand Indonesian very well, and I could not speak his dialect. According to him it had been carved by his grandfather, but this could have been any "grandfather" back for a few generations.

As to the word "capil". This is a variation of "caping". Caping appears in Old Javanese, in Modern Javanese and either "caping" or "capil" -- I forget which -- appears in Balinese and also Indonesian. A "capil" is a hat, specifically a wide hat made out of palm leaves, the sort of triangular shaped one that farmers and becak drivers wear.

I have never heard this word used for a type of wrongko, but if we consider the leaf motif on this one, I can see why somebody might have decided that "capil" was a good name for it. Maybe they just forgot to mention this to the people who wear them --- or maybe my informant was not all that interested in keris terminology.

Yes, I think it must qualify as folk art.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yeah David, true.

OK, I'll crop from the originals, I can find time to do that, I just don't have the time to do another photo shoot.

Tell me what you would like to see more clearly.

Yes, for me, folk art.

Yes, there are a couple of pretty active FB groups. I did try one for a while, not active, but passive. I found the format extremely frustrating and the nature of the replies -- admittedly, forced onto the contributors because of the format of FB --- extremely unsatisfying. Not quite my cup of tea.

[Jean]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Detlef, I do not know the correct name for this wrongko. I did ask the previous owner if it had a special name, but he was very much a village man he did not speak nor understand Indonesian very well, and I could not speak his dialect. According to him it had been carved by his grandfather, but this could have been any "grandfather" back for a few generations.

As to the word "capil". This is a variation of "caping". Caping appears in Old Javanese, in Modern Javanese and either "caping" or "capil" -- I forget which -- appears in Balinese and also Indonesian. A "capil" is a hat, specifically a wide hat made out of palm leaves, the sort of triangular shaped one that farmers and becak drivers wear.

I have never heard this word used for a type of wrongko, but if we consider the leaf motif on this one, I can see why somebody might have decided that "capil" was a good name for it. Maybe they just forgot to mention this to the people who wear them --- or maybe my informant was not all that interested in keris terminology.

Yes, I think it must qualify as folk art.

Like Detlef, I also know the name capil for this type of warangka, I learned it from a well-known kris collector & seller from Surabaya. However this specimen is peculiar because of the carved gambar. Given the history of the kris, I wonder if the blade deserves to be kept confidential, I respect Alan' decision but this is not my philosophy as you know unless in very special cases.
I am often stumbling across kris auctions where the blade is not shown and this irritates me very much, but it is due to the ignorance of the auctioneers who believe that the value of a kris mainly lies in its clothes...
Regards