Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony G.
doesn't look so and the uwer stones look like glass.
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Well, i would not be surprised to find glass "stones" fitted into a gold wewer. In Bali glass can often be found in high end ensembles. I have been told that the over all impression was more important than the intrinsic value of the stones. So finding glass set in a gold setting is not that unusual.
I agree that this keris probably would have been owned by a person of means though as the blade was not likely to have been inexpensive to commission.
I have read a couple of explanations of these tapukan style hilts. One idea was that they were favoured by soldiers due to the added grip the hair or fiber wrap provided. But i have never seen anything to support that theory beyond the logic that, yes, a wrap like this probably would provide a better grip.
The other is that this was a style of hilt favoured by the young. As were, apparently, kojongan style sheaths. And i have seen examples of keris dress that actually use both the kojongan with the tapukan hilt. So maybe that is the case.
But the reason i called out the "royal" tag on this keris is that this just doesn't appear to be the type of dress i would see on a keris owned by a member of the royal family. This tapukan hilt is a bit fancier than most, with that nice Kala carved on the pommel, but it still not what i would expect from royalty. So yes, "nobility" might be a better possibility. Or just somebody with the means to afford such a blade.
Did i see somewhere that there is a sheath that comes with this keris? I am curious to see what the entire ensemble looks like. I have a couple of keris with these tapukan hilts. One is rather plain in dress, but the other is in antique sunggingan dress and the tapukan hilt is painted with the same pigment so it seems to have been a part of the original dress. I am not sure if any particular social level in Bali were privy to sunggingan dress, but it is interesting that i have also seen a number of sunggingan dressed Bali keris with tapukan hilts as can be seen in this old thread.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24742