Saron

Alternate name(s)

Saron barung

Date1830-1880 ca.

Place MadeBali, Indonesia, Asia

Serial No.none

SignednoneDescriptionWood frame with carved decorations, painted variably in red, yellow and blue. Nine bronze bars lay across the hollow body, each secured by two small pins set into the frame. Traditionally, the decoration would have included the application of goldleaf on the carved wooden ornaments with a solid ground, often but not always red. The current decorative scheme is a later addition.

The saron barung is but one instrument in a larger ensemble, known as gamelan. Originally, it was used in small court ensembles, but as the size and instrumentation of gamelan grew and diversified, the role of the saron expanded, too. This example is from the Balinese tradition, evidenced by the style of the frame and decoration.
DimensionsLength: 850 mm
Width 250 mm
Height: 190 mm

ProvenancePreviously owned by Walter A. May, who purchased it in in Batavia-Centrum, now Jakarta, while a passenger on the four-and-a-half-month-long Southern Hemisphere Cruise of the S. S. Franconia (Cunard line), which departed from New York City on January 9, 1934. A letter of authentication, prepared by a representative of the interior decorating firm from which May obtained the instrument, claimed that it was a "Balinese Gamelan from an old Court, and several hundreds [sic] years old."

Purchased from Wurlitzer-Bruck, New York, New York, 1980.

Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1980

Object number02684

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