Hello Alexis,
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As you can infer from my posts, I am particularly interested in rare sarung forms, which I would like to commision from Indonesian carvers.
As a collector, I see that the typical sarung forms of the kerises from the various regions appear to be too commonly focused on a few sterotype designs.
For example in the case of Javanese kerises, 80% to 90% of kerises for sale have sarungs in either the Gayaman or Ladrang Solo form.
Likewise, in th case of Malay or Bugis kerises, more than 90% have sarungs in the typical plain rectangular "Tebeng" form with no floral motifs.
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I'd quibble that the Tebeng form comes in quite a lot of local variants and that the market share of Yogya and Madura scabbards is more than 10-20%.
I do see your point though... A good part of the apparent uniformity comes from the fact that the originating cultures heavily stress conformity. As a member of a close-knit group, you most certainly don't want to stand out or look special - any such behaviour would be taken as a kind of insult! Of course, such a restriction doesn't apply to foreign collectors...
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Hence, I am particularly interested in novelty, uniqeness and rarity of sarung designs.
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I certainly understand your interest; I'd consider quality of carving and quality of the wood as of paramount importance. Quality of carving can be based on fine nuances of the flow of lines if one follows the traditional approach. Quality of wood is something which carvers nowadays have a very tough time to compete with above-average antique examples due to exhausted supplies.
I believe that collecting genuine antique fittings that are damaged beyond repair and patching would be a sensible focus for collectors. In keris-bearing societies these are considered to be unfit for continued use. Thus, rescuing such examples from destruction and keeping them for future study might be a valuable contribution of preserving examples of material culture and old traditions!
Regards,
Kai