Royal Bali Keris for comments
 

Here are a few snaps I took of a Bali keris I have, The handle is solid 18K gold, fairly heavy and studded with various jewels.

The blade is 7 luk and has some signs of rust but wouldn't have thought it has any great age.

Keris like this were often owned by raja or prince, the handle is in the form of the Hindu God BhaBayu as far as I can tell.

Interesting.

Do you have a picture of the tip of the blade ?

best regards,
Willem

The pictures aren't to good so i might be mistaken, but gold and jewels aside, this isn't the level craftsmanship i would expect from a royal Bali keris. :shrug:
This link shows a few that might be closer to royal quality levels:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...old+Bali+hilts

Hello Pusaka,
I agree with David, in my opinion the keris and handle recent work and not in a quality of a royal pusaka.
Here a better handle from my avatar for comparison.
Regards,
sajen

Great!! Awesome!! :) :) :eek: :eek:

Yes those keris are of a higher standard, particularly the one with large diamonds set in the handle (must be worth an absolute fortune)

I think the difference in the quality is that mine was simply cast whilst the other examples were cast and then hand chased with tools to bring out the detail.

My keris handle shows signs that some of the gems were picked out and replaced at some point. I think the original owner probably removed the more expensive gems and replaced them with less expensive ones before passing it on.

Actually, it's really not a matter of expensive gems, it a matter of the metal work itself that leads me to believe that yours is not the hilt of a "rajas" keris. In Bali the overall effect is more important than the worth of individual stones and it is not uncommon to find glass "stones" on royal hilts along side real ones if the fit the intended overall appearance.

Thank's!
regards,
sajen