Gustav, in respect of post #33, yes, it was interesting. Very. This is precisely the reason I will make no comment.
As to the production of very good copies of older blades, the situation is exactly as I have said on many occasions:- at the production level these keris are not intended as forgeries or fakes, in fact, what we see here is the continuation of a tradition as old keris culture itself. Current era makers who have sufficient talent copying the work of makers from previous times. This is regarded as a tribute to the previous maker.
However, when those copies get into the hands of certain people, they magically age by a couple of hundred years.
All this speculation about photos and interest in European museums and European "knowledge" is just a load of nonsense. The keris community in Indonesia has no interest at all in the opinions of people outside their own circle of collaborators and targets.
The concept that craftsmen can produce convincing keris, or convincing hilts, or convincing anything else from photos is another flight of fancy. They simply cannot, but the people who are at the top of the keris industry have no problem at all of obtaining the necessary examples of works that they want copied, and these copies are then sold on the local market for prices that no European, American or other person who was not a part of the culture would pay.
It might be a bitter pill to swallow for some people, but the Keris World in Indonesia has not one iota of interest in what people outside that world think or do, and on the very rare occasions when they do learn some of the ideas held by those outside the culture it usually has either one of two results:- derisive smiles accompanied by cutting remarks, or anger.
Think about it like this Gustav:- if you had a spare $50,000 what would you do with it?
If a businessman from Jakarta had a spare $50,000, what might he do with it?
Its a different world Gustav, and you cannot possibly understand it unless you have lived it.
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