Jean, I do not agree with "made for the tourist trade".
I see this phrase , or something like it, often, and it is just straight out wrong.
The two keris that you have shown are of reasonable quality, and would have been produced for the local market in Indonesia.
The keris is a part of Javanese formal dress, and there are only so many old blades that are suitable for use as a dress keris. The biggest market for modern keris production is the local market in Indonesia itself, it is not tourists nor is it western collectors.
The best of modern production is spoken for before it is even produced, and it finishes up with keris connoisseurs in Indonesia, or to people outside Indonesia who have the right connections.
The bulk of other modern production goes into the local market and is bought by Indonesians.
Yes, of course there are keris that are directed specifically at tourists, and these are of abysmal quality, often just pieces of sheet iron for a blade that holds together an elaborately carved scabbard and hilt.
The keris that Joshua has shown us is probably towards the upper end of the products that tourists have the opportunity to buy.
The keris that you have shown us are mid-quality current production intended for the Indonesian market.
On the subject of mistakes, the very first keris I ever bought in Indonesia was a monumental mistake. At the time I bought it I already had many years experience in collecting keris, and I thought I was pretty clever. I was approached in the courtyard of a hotel in Menteng and offered a very beautiful (in my eyes at that time) keris with a waved blade, a singo barong, and dripping with gold. I paid a pretty good price for it. Eventually I found out that it was an altered blade with the singo barong a later addition, and the weld joint hidden by gold.
Yep, we all make errors.
|