Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Naga keris

A. G. Maisey · 26th June 2009, 03:35 AM

Kai, I'm not going to attempt to respond to all of your post.
I have stated my opinion based upon my experience. I have no intention of defending that opinion, and I have no interest at all in whether it is accepted or not. I have simply given a little of my time to pass along some things that I believe to be true. I am not addressing the question of hilts, scabbards and other dress, my comments apply only to blades.

However, I will add this:-

Regarding Lake Toba and other tourist destinations in SE Asia.
The keris that I have seen coming out of those areas in recent years have all had either old, very low quality blades or recent Madura blades.Dress has varied, and I'm not commenting here on dress.

Regarding what has been available in Bali during the last ten years.

Perhaps I have been looking in the wrong places. When I am in Bali I routinely vist three well known keris dealers, all the antique shops in Klungkung, some of the antique and art shops in the Mas-Ubud area, all the antique/art/craft shops that I know of in the Kuta- Legian area, and occasionally the big market in Den Pasar and some of the art shops in Den Pasar.I never visit Sanur nor do I visit some of the outlying tourist destinations.

I thought I had the ground pretty well covered, but I admit, I've only been doing the rounds in Bali since 1974 --- my visits before that were mostly concentrated on the beach --- and it is entirely possible that there may be sellers around of whom I do not know.

However, although I saw a fair representation of flat iron batik blades through into the early 1990's, I have not seen any during the last ten years or so --- none that were presented as real keris, in any case. I have noticed a few very, very rubbishy Javanese things with hawkers and in little stalls, but these could never be confused with a keris, the prices equate to the cost of decent cup of coffee. Serious attempts at keris as tourist souvenirs have pretty much disappeared, and have been replaced by genuine low quality blades in dress that will appeal to western tourists, and tourists from other parts of Indonesia. During the last few years there have been a lot of tourists in Bali from Jakarta, Surabaya and other major cities. Foriegn tourists have decreased a fair bit.

Regarding the pamor on the keris in question, I thought I had already covered that query about pamor.
When I see this pamor I need some sort of solid evidence to convince me that it is not East Jawa, and from prior to 1980.
This sort of heavily textured ngulit semangko pamor may occur in Central Javanese keris, but I cannot recall having seen it.

26th June 2009, 03:35 AM	#5
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	Kai, I'm not going to attempt to respond to all of your post. I have stated my opinion based upon my experience. I have no intention of defending that opinion, and I have no interest at all in whether it is accepted or not. I have simply given a little of my time to pass along some things that I believe to be true. I am not addressing the question of hilts, scabbards and other dress, my comments apply only to blades. However, I will add this:- Regarding Lake Toba and other tourist destinations in SE Asia. The keris that I have seen coming out of those areas in recent years have all had either old, very low quality blades or recent Madura blades.Dress has varied, and I'm not commenting here on dress. Regarding what has been available in Bali during the last ten years. Perhaps I have been looking in the wrong places. When I am in Bali I routinely vist three well known keris dealers, all the antique shops in Klungkung, some of the antique and art shops in the Mas-Ubud area, all the antique/art/craft shops that I know of in the Kuta- Legian area, and occasionally the big market in Den Pasar and some of the art shops in Den Pasar.I never visit Sanur nor do I visit some of the outlying tourist destinations. I thought I had the ground pretty well covered, but I admit, I've only been doing the rounds in Bali since 1974 --- my visits before that were mostly concentrated on the beach --- and it is entirely possible that there may be sellers around of whom I do not know. However, although I saw a fair representation of flat iron batik blades through into the early 1990's, I have not seen any during the last ten years or so --- none that were presented as real keris, in any case. I have noticed a few very, very rubbishy Javanese things with hawkers and in little stalls, but these could never be confused with a keris, the prices equate to the cost of decent cup of coffee. Serious attempts at keris as tourist souvenirs have pretty much disappeared, and have been replaced by genuine low quality blades in dress that will appeal to western tourists, and tourists from other parts of Indonesia. During the last few years there have been a lot of tourists in Bali from Jakarta, Surabaya and other major cities. Foriegn tourists have decreased a fair bit. Regarding the pamor on the keris in question, I thought I had already covered that query about pamor. When I see this pamor I need some sort of solid evidence to convince me that it is not East Jawa, and from prior to 1980. This sort of heavily textured ngulit semangko pamor may occur in Central Javanese keris, but I cannot recall having seen it.