An important keris Kamardikan for our records

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Detlef, I have noticed this thread, but I cannot really contribute much.

In 1990 the man who was recognised as probably the best sunggingan artist in Solo, and some people believed that he was one of the best of all time, was an artist from Pajang, just next to the rail crossing, his name was Legiman.

I have looked closely at the sunggingan work on this wrongko, and to my eye it does not appear to be Legiman's work.

I have a number of wrongkos that were painted by Legiman, and in fact, he was the only artist that I ever used for sunggingan work. When his eyesight started to go I stopped ordering from him, and any sunggingan work I acquired after that was not bespoke, but purchased from a dealer.

I am uncertain if Legiman was still working at his best at around 1995, when it seems that this keris was dressed, but if the work was not done by Legiman, I would have no hope of identifying who might have done it.

I do not know who might have painted this wrongko, nor who might have made the wrongko itself.

The keris itself certainly does look like the work of Djeno. I will not comment on this blade because the indicators that I have been taught to use in the appraisal of quality vary very widely from the ideas of collectors in the Western World, & for that matter from the ideas of most people in Indonesia who are outside Solonese society.