Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 18th February 2011, 07:39 AM

David, just as I had nothing positive to bring to the discussion, I equally had nothing negative.To my eyes it is just like any number of Balinese keris that I've seen. An older blade, modern but nice dress. Not a bad thing, but nothing really to comment on.

I cannot see anything at all that is unusual in the blade form. Bear in mind that there were a number of kingdoms, and blades and dress form varied from place to place. Pre-colonial Bali was not just one big homogeneous mass, it was divided into a number of various locations.We get minor variations in Balinese blades, some just look like super size Central Jawa blades. Some look like super size Segaluh blades. There is a lot of variation. This blade --- to my eye --- falls into the "average Bali blade" box. Typical surface finish, nothing unusual in the ricikan, older form of ron dha, not particularly well executed sogokan, but OK, slow waves, limited kruwingan resulting in rotan-like cross section, no gusen.

The gold is unusual. If it doesn't cover a defect --- which is the usual reason that little irregular spots of gold are put on a blade, I don't know why its there. Non formal gold dots & etc can be added to a blade for esoteric reasons, but you normally see these on top of the gonjo.

There are many unanswered questions with keris, and this applies most especially to Balinese keris, and again most especially to the questions that arise in the minds of some of us, which are often not even considered by the people to whose culture these objects belong.

We've got this new keris book which will hopefully appear in English and as a generally available publication before too long, but there is not much information of the type that seems to interest most of people here in that book. We've got a lot of names that were previously not known to most of us, but that's about all.The strong point of the book is the wonderful pictures.

You mention that you can see something different or special in the gandhik area of this keris. I've looked and looked, and I cannot see anything that strikes me as unusual. Could you be a bit more explicit in what it is that you can see in the gandhik area? Maybe you can see something that I cannot.

Incidentally, is the hilt ebony, or kayu arang? Heavy, dense hardwood?

18th February 2011, 07:39 AM	#35
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,991	David, just as I had nothing positive to bring to the discussion, I equally had nothing negative.To my eyes it is just like any number of Balinese keris that I've seen. An older blade, modern but nice dress. Not a bad thing, but nothing really to comment on. I cannot see anything at all that is unusual in the blade form. Bear in mind that there were a number of kingdoms, and blades and dress form varied from place to place. Pre-colonial Bali was not just one big homogeneous mass, it was divided into a number of various locations.We get minor variations in Balinese blades, some just look like super size Central Jawa blades. Some look like super size Segaluh blades. There is a lot of variation. This blade --- to my eye --- falls into the "average Bali blade" box. Typical surface finish, nothing unusual in the ricikan, older form of ron dha, not particularly well executed sogokan, but OK, slow waves, limited kruwingan resulting in rotan-like cross section, no gusen. The gold is unusual. If it doesn't cover a defect --- which is the usual reason that little irregular spots of gold are put on a blade, I don't know why its there. Non formal gold dots & etc can be added to a blade for esoteric reasons, but you normally see these on top of the gonjo. There are many unanswered questions with keris, and this applies most especially to Balinese keris, and again most especially to the questions that arise in the minds of some of us, which are often not even considered by the people to whose culture these objects belong. We've got this new keris book which will hopefully appear in English and as a generally available publication before too long, but there is not much information of the type that seems to interest most of people here in that book. We've got a lot of names that were previously not known to most of us, but that's about all.The strong point of the book is the wonderful pictures. You mention that you can see something different or special in the gandhik area of this keris. I've looked and looked, and I cannot see anything that strikes me as unusual. Could you be a bit more explicit in what it is that you can see in the gandhik area? Maybe you can see something that I cannot. Incidentally, is the hilt ebony, or kayu arang? Heavy, dense hardwood?