Balinese kris from Polish Museum

[wolviex]

This is next kris from poor collection of National Musuem in my city. This time I tried to find some information about it for myself, according to the sites you recommended me in previous post, and through the databes of this forum also.
Anyway I have some question about this piece, and I hope you'll be able to help me

The sheath is made of wood, covered with repoussed, gilt, open-worked brass plate. There are two rock crystals set as eyes, cut very well, I could even say perfectly. The head is a little damaged becouse of lack of two rivets, at the base. There is only one left with rock crystal (probably?) as well.
What I saw, most of sheaths of this type, were covered with plate which were ornamented with repousse, engraving but not with openwork. From European view I could judge it as made quite good or even very good. The floral design contrasts with black velvet under the plate (except the upper part where velvet is lost). I can say it is made very precisely, because of "shading" with little, very little and fine made lines. Take a look at close-up picture - this flower is only 1 cm long. But the flowers itself could be made better I think and I would judge it as class B. It's only European view, probably abstract from regional opinion - so what do you think about it? The sheath is 42,7 cm long (16,8'')

The Mendak is very small, different from what I saw in similiar krises. But again I'm too inexperienced...

The hilt (ukiran) is of typical Balinese type I think. Are they all so thick? Its measurements are: 12 cm long (4,7'') and 16 cm (6,2'') of girth !!! I can barely fit it to my "normal European size hand" .

And the blade. It's 35,1 cm long (13,8''). I don't know what to think about it. It looks for me almost as damaged with some acid or corrosion? But maybe it just the way it should be? I'm appealing to your great knowledge. BTW - Ganja is 7,8 cm wide (3'').

And few more questions:
1. What is the name of this god/idol at the sheath. Stone's glossary calls it BONASPATTI. Somewhere at this forum you called it Raksa ulu/Raksa hulu, sometimes just as Rice deity and, at last, more often KALA, "symbol of the rainbow leading people to heaven". So what is the truth?

2. Wood: it's probably called peyet. My question is, what are this stains on it. At the warangka it looks very naturally, while at the ukiran it looks more like it was painted or something. I read somewhere a note about gold painting, maybe this is it?

3. I'm intrested in this floral design - what flowers this could be (European ones I could recognize somehow probably )

4. Typical question - is it good or is it bad - for me it's too hard to judge it properly in any way

Thank you in advance and best regards!

[wolviex]

next photos

[DAHenkel]

Wolviex - if this is "poor" then the Polsh National Museum must be a very rich place indeed. This is an extremely fine and old example of a Balinese keris with what is known as a topengan or "mask". There is considerable age to the piece, I'd say mid-19th century or perhaps earlier (for the dress) and the blade could be far older. Most classic "Balinese" blades are much more recent. The earliest examples resemble Javanese keris and this is an excellent example of that.

Topengan, for keris, are a fairly old innovation though very rare. They usually come from Bali (as your Museum's) although they seem to have originated in Java. We have at the ACM an example of a topengan (sans keris) that was recovered from a 15th c. Majapahit site in East Java.

The sheath is of course much later than the blade - again possibly mid-19th century and the hulu is a fine and typical example (cf. Hamzuri, both editions although I don't have the books handy so I can't give a page reference).

The only thing strange about this piece is that the oversheath (and topengan) is on backwards. Normally the topengan would be on the front of the sheath (port side by nautical reckoning). It appears a less than knowledgeable curator of old slipped it on backwards. It is an excellent example and from the looks of it in high grade gold as well.

An outstanding piece and one any museum would be proud to own.

[wolviex]

Thank you DAHenkel for this first reply. I must admit I liked this kris very much, but I didn't suppose it could be so good in your opinion. So now I'm waiting for others much more impatiently.
About "oversheath" - yes, you can be right about wrong orientation of this, take a look at third picture from the end, you can see the upper part doesn't fit perfectly to the sheath

And a "poor collection" - that does mean there are not many krises in National Musuem..., it doesn't mean they're not good

[nechesh]

Yes,this is certainly an extremely fine example of a gold Balinese over sheath and topengan, however, i would say it is a stretch to call this an extremely fine keris. The blade could be an old Bali blade or perhaps a Javanese one, but it is not very well made. It also appears to be gonjo iras (gonjo and blade are all one piece) which for me implies that when it was made corners were cut to lower costs. This is not the type of blade i would expect to see in this type of dress.Why they ended up together is anybody's guess. That being said the gold pendok and topengan are indeed beautiful and certainly worthy of museum display.
I believe the topengan is intended to be a demon, not a diety, ergo the fangs.
As Dave has suggested, you might want to remove the pendok and turn it around to the other side. For a minor restoration touch you could replace the material that is underneath it with a piece that covers the entire gandar. The wood of the gandar should not be showing through the carved floral work.

[wolviex]

Thank you for your replies so far. I want to remind some of my questions asked above: what about wood and floral design - any ideas??

Thank you in advance