Bali Keris Info & Advice Requested

A. G. Maisey · 23rd March 2024, 08:43 PM

I feel that I am looking at an out-of-society reconstruction here.

The blade does appear to be Bali, the visible part of the wrongko could possibly have been produced by reshaping a damaged original.

The craftsmanship of the hilt is not Balinese, Javanese, nor of any other SE Asian society that I can readily identify.

The orange in the sogokan I feel was probably originally red, so with red + black + the symbolism of Siwa carried by the sogokan, we have the trimurti:- Siwa-Brahma-Wisnu. This would be a part of the out-of-culture work, it would not have been done in Bali, but could have been added by a person with some understanding of socio-religious mores in Bali.

Opinion only, I have never seen anything like this previously.

23rd March 2024, 08:43 PM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,991	I feel that I am looking at an out-of-society reconstruction here. The blade does appear to be Bali, the visible part of the wrongko could possibly have been produced by reshaping a damaged original. The craftsmanship of the hilt is not Balinese, Javanese, nor of any other SE Asian society that I can readily identify. The orange in the sogokan I feel was probably originally red, so with red + black + the symbolism of Siwa carried by the sogokan, we have the trimurti:- Siwa-Brahma-Wisnu. This would be a part of the out-of-culture work, it would not have been done in Bali, but could have been added by a person with some understanding of socio-religious mores in Bali. Opinion only, I have never seen anything like this previously.