Existential Question

[Sam U Rye]

Dear Fellow Collectors,
This is something that's been bothering me of late, now that I'm past my mid sixties. All these years I've been collecting, I've acquired new specimens because they made my heart sing, as they were so spectacular.ly beautiful, and within my financial grasp. I never gave much thought to them being an investment, nor intended ever to sell them, because I derive so much pleasure from looking at them, re-arranging, polishing them, and in general, being the curator of my "little museum."

I also discovered that an added benefit was meeting and getting to know other collectors. I soon realized though, that there were almost as many reasons that my fellow collectors had so many different motivations and reasons for collecting. In some cases, there were collectors that looked at their Keris and hilts primarily as investment vehicles, another was an interior decorator, and used various Indonesia Art pieces as decorative items. As such, I invariably ask a collector how he/she became interested in collecting Keris or hilts. Quite often, the common thread between every collector has been an their experience traveling in and through various islands in the Indonesian Archipelago, and the fact that these pieces acted as trigger points for wonderful memories of these magical islands.

As time went by however, like all of us, I began to see fewer and fewer quality pieces, and an increase in "airport art" hilts that were of such poor quality, I could hardly bare to look at them. My becoming picky had a lot to do with the growing size of my collection. As the number of hilts in my personal collection grew, so did the difficulty to find another hilt of interest, or one that I didn't already have several duplicates of. Therefore, most of my usual venues for finding what I considered to be great hilts, became increasingly more difficult and frustrating. Now, I buy almost solely from private collectors who, for one reason or another, are liquidating or selling off a few pieces to supplement income, capitalizing on their inventory to finance ("buying up"), in order to acquire higher quality specimens of a particular style of hilt. This is pretty rare atmosphere, and I've been very fortunate to have met a few collectors who are selling their hilts, even their most precious pieces as part of a legacy and endowment strategy for their children and grandchildren.

This realization has become increasingly on my mind, because it's become easier and easier for me to imagine that these fine folks are me in 5-10-15 or 20 years from now. (Yikes!!!)

As you all, are the largest gathering of dedicated hilt and Keris owners that I know. I'd be grateful and very interested in knowing if you too have thought of the mortality issues of Ownership, and how you are making or what you are doing to make plans for the disposal of your collection, after you pass on?

I believe that to ask such a personal question, requires my self disclosure as to what I plan to do. I have two daughters, ages 19 and 22 who "like" my collection, but do, more because they see that my hilt collection so delights me and how much it makes me happy. They are so loving and kind to me, as they sometime sit with me as I show and teach them about a particularly unusual hilt and why I think it's special. Despite that, it's obvious to me that they don't love my collection as I do, and although I believe that they might happily have a dozen or more pieces that they always liked, in their homes, but I don't wish to saddle them with thousands of dollars in art pieces that they don't have the room or inclination to keep, nor the ability to easily re-convert these other hilts into cash.

I have added to my "Bucket List" a vacation to Indonesia with my family, where I can introduce them to places that I loved in Indonesia, notably, Jogjakarta, Bali, and Lomboc, in hopes that they too will become as enchanted as I have throughout my life. The main portion of my strategy, however, is to find venues that most likely will be around in the next 10-20 years, and a list of phone numbers or websites that they could turn to for advise, and/or to either buy or broker my hilt estate sales.

As you can see, this is quite an incomplete strategy, or at least, I feel that it's one in it's embryonic stage. I hope that my idea and concern isn't a novel one amongst this August body of Keris and Hilt owners, and that you'd be kind enough to share your perspective, and offer suggestions, comments, and counsel on this pressing issue for me.

Many thanks for reading this very long email.

Regards,
Craig ("Sam U Rye")

[mariusgmioc]

Hello Craig,

Maybe you can find some answers to your question in the postings from this thread:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22474

Regards,

Marius

[Sam U Rye]

Hi Marius,
Thanks for your reply and suggestion. As a newbie, I was sure that my puzzlement wasn't an original one. I appreciate your showing me where to look.
Regards
Craig