Origin of the keris

A. G. Maisey · 11th January 2008, 08:49 PM

Nothing wrong with your English, Marco---damn sight better than my Italian.

Anyway--- ferric material corrodes much more quickly than brass or bronze. Most of the genuine old excavated bronzes that I have seen have been fairly thin and light, and mostly seem to be filled with a clay-like substance, rather than jabung or damar. The smooth parts of the material are very smooth and have nice even, dark patina.Old bronzes in general have a very refined, "gentle" feel to them---something that is difficult for me to put into words--- its almost as if when hold the object you can feel the age.This handle of yours just looks too heavy and unrefined. I could be 100% wrong, I'm no expert on bronzes, but to my eye it just doesn't look like genuine stuff I have seen and handled. If the price approximated ivory, that was probably not high enough. I have seen quite small , genuine bronzes change hands within the trade, in Jawa, for very impressive money.Something else too:- can you still see the lines of the cast and has the surface been well finished after casting? If you can still see the joints and there has been minimum finishing it is certain to be modern.Have you tested the material? Brass or bronze? If brass it is modern.

After more than 40 years of buying things in Indonesia, I no longer take a great deal of notice of the "supporting evidence" when I buy. Anybody dealing on even the lowest commercial level knows what they can get for their goods, and the way something is presented --- for instance, with adhering deposits, or stubs of corroded iron--- is just so much window dressing.

11th January 2008, 08:49 PM	#35
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,019	Nothing wrong with your English, Marco---damn sight better than my Italian. Anyway--- ferric material corrodes much more quickly than brass or bronze. Most of the genuine old excavated bronzes that I have seen have been fairly thin and light, and mostly seem to be filled with a clay-like substance, rather than jabung or damar. The smooth parts of the material are very smooth and have nice even, dark patina.Old bronzes in general have a very refined, "gentle" feel to them---something that is difficult for me to put into words--- its almost as if when hold the object you can feel the age.This handle of yours just looks too heavy and unrefined. I could be 100% wrong, I'm no expert on bronzes, but to my eye it just doesn't look like genuine stuff I have seen and handled. If the price approximated ivory, that was probably not high enough. I have seen quite small , genuine bronzes change hands within the trade, in Jawa, for very impressive money.Something else too:- can you still see the lines of the cast and has the surface been well finished after casting? If you can still see the joints and there has been minimum finishing it is certain to be modern.Have you tested the material? Brass or bronze? If brass it is modern. After more than 40 years of buying things in Indonesia, I no longer take a great deal of notice of the "supporting evidence" when I buy. Anybody dealing on even the lowest commercial level knows what they can get for their goods, and the way something is presented --- for instance, with adhering deposits, or stubs of corroded iron--- is just so much window dressing.