Bali Keris - Ex From Frey Collection

[A. G. Maisey]

That hilt and selut has troubled me from the time I first saw it, back on AofA in 1975.

I've seen similar, but not the same type, of hilt cups on Bali keris, but those I have seen have never had this sort of lung-lungan motif, which to my eye, in this context, looks out of place. It is a casting, so one would expect to see more than just this single example, my feeling is that this hilt cup has been modified from a Bugis hilt cup.

The hilt I feel can be interpreted as a wooden gerantim, I cannot see any other Bali hilt form that looks similar. It does have echoes of the bondolan form, but the carving reminds me of nothing so much as the gerantim.

I cannot associate this particular hilt form with what I have seen identified as mainland Bali, so I'm inclined to place it as maybe Lombok --- the Bugis hilt cup --- or maybe far west Bali, or even far east Jawa, Banyuwangi.

The sesrengatan wrongko is an exact equivalent of the Javanese ladrangan form, used for formal dress occasions.