Bali Keris - Ex From Frey Collection

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

This is quite a nice quality keris, it comes from a known source, it has been published in a prestigious magazine. My approach would be to consider the obvious quality and ignore the small deviation from the expected.

Well i do...in fact, i may be the odd man out, but i would even go so far as to say i embrace the deviations. I tend to like oddities and mysteries.
Yes, i agree that the motifs used in my East Jawa hilt are completely different and i see exactly what you mean in your comparison to the gerantim forms. It was just the over all impression of the hilt that reminded me of this East Jawa form.
Rick, i am certainly willing to accept that the cup was adapted from another source and perhaps a dapping block can into play. However, i would think that might endanger the motifs if used as i understand dapping blocks. As for this specific viney motif, it is not quite like any i have seen on a Bugis hilt cup, but if someone has a similar one i would sure like to see it. As Alan points out, if it's from a casting there should be others, if not in Bali then perhaps somewhere in the Malay world.