Keris bargain

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, many years ago my standards were perhaps not so far different to your own, but over time my ideas have changed. I have learnt that to the people in the two keris bearing societies that I know best, this approach of matching blade to dress is not quite so important to them as it is to collectors from outside the societies.

It is true that if a Javanese man wishes or needs to wear a keris as an item of formal dress, then that man is more or less compelled to wear a keris in dress that matches with the dress that the man himself is wearing, and this approach is intensified within kraton societies.

But the further one moves away from the influence of a kraton, the less important this. When we move into rural districts in Central Jawa a keris is keris, the compulsion of matching dress disappears for most people.

In Bali for at least the last 50 years a similar situation has prevailed. As I have previously mentioned, men in positions of authority in Bali do not hesitate to wear keris in dress other than that which we would recognise as Balinese.

My own approach as a collector is that if a keris is dressed acceptably for the society from which it comes, then it is not really my place to over-rule the owners of that society and change that dress in order to satisfy my own standards.

I do acknowledge that your standards of collecting are pretty much the norm for the vast bulk of collectors who come from outside keris bearing societies, and I can understand this approach.