balinese keriss ?

[JustYS]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Yes, there are definitely deliberate keris forgeries floating around, and believe me, they are very, very difficult to detect.

But almost nobody in the general collector market is ever going to have to worry about these forgeries, quite simply because the prices on these genuine forgeries are so high that they are beyond the means of most people. The real forgeries are priced about in line with motor vehicles, the lower priced ones are at about the level of a good used Toyota with low mileage, the higher priced ones are at about new Mercedes Benz level.

True forgeries are not designed to rip somebody off to the tune of ten or twenty bucks, or even a couple of hundred, they are intended to rip somebody off to the tune of around 10K to over 100K.

I really don't think that we need to worry too much about forged dates on things kicking around down at the bottom of the market.

Just a bit of reflection regarding these keris forgers (please let me know if my logic is flawed). In my opinion, these keris forgers must be:

1. Very talented keris makers
2. Do not started their career as forgers

However their original works must be rejected/dismissed by the collectors, therefore they turned to forgery.

Is it because collectors tend to buy the stories or the “brands” (famous keris makers) than the keris itself?

[A. G. Maisey]

Sorry YS, I cannot answer those questions.

I do not know the makers of the type of thing that I'm talking about, anything I said would be guesswork only.