Sumbawa keris for enjoy and discussion

[David]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Although I am also suspicious about the whole "Sumbawa" hype, I can imagine you being tempted by this level of workmanship.

As for the Sumbawa Hype, I am far from an expert, but I do visit markets and fairs on a regular basis for the last 15 years or so. but 10 years ago I never saw any keris being named "Sumbawa".
Nor did I see the style with fancy toli toli's, stones etc.

For the last few years they appear on the market, and suprisingly always sold by collectors / traders that visit Indonesia on a regular basis (ie. visiting once or twice a year).

Traders that get their stuff from estate sales and from elderly people cleaning up the house, never come up with Sumbawa material.

Although sometimes well made, Sumbawa keris' will not end up on my wall
very soon.

Well, for what it's worth i was just on a popular on-line keris site that is currently selling 3 keris which it has labeled as "Sumbawa". Only one of the 3 has a fancy toli-toli with gemstones. The other 2 have nice but relatively simple Bugis style dress. I have also seen keris with the fancy studded toli-toli attributed to Sulawesi.
Willem, you are, of course, welcome to choose whatever you like to put on you wall, but i am interested in hearing more about what you mean by "Sumbawa" keris and why you feel this way. Are you referring only to the ones with the toli-toli? You say that 10 years ago you never saw any keris attributed to Sumbawa. Is this because keris weren't made in Sumbawa or because no one ever thought it was a good idea to say so before?
As for these nice silver stone-studded examples like Mick's, i am not so quick to dismiss them. If i am not mistaken, unlike most other old weapons that are collected around the world, it is very common and in fact part of the tradition to re-dress an old keris when the old dress wears thin. If the keris is important to you it might be considered disrespectful to leave it in an old, beat-up sheath. I find Mick's dress to be very appealing. The nice gonjo iras blade as well. My questions would be (1) is it an acceptable style within the culture or merely something that is designed to attract the eye of foreign collectors and (2) is the quality of the sheath appropriate to the quality of the keris blade itself. With Mick's it seems so. So often we see old junky blades redressed in fancy attire and sold as "important" keris strictly to attract buyers in the collectors market. But if a nice old keris is nicely re-dressed in well-crafted and stylistically correct clothing that is appealing to my eye i don't think i have a problem with that.