Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · Today, 05:03 AM

Adam, I did not suggest that this was a repair of damage caused by the over drilling of a tang hole, I am merely relating what I have seen in the past.

Something I have never seen is a hilt that has been made by gluing pieces of wood together & then carving those pieces of wood. Moreover, parts of the hilt appear to be genuinely old, other parts of it do not.

What I believe I can see is that we have a hilt with some sections of very high contrast material, the lines of demarcation between these contrasting zones are very crisp & well defined, however, in some places it does appear that the grain of the wood continues across the lines of demarcation.

There is something else that is also apparent, sections of the wood have quite high chatoyance.

Further, the crest of the hilt appears to have been replaced, and although this would be the most simple of repairs, it has been very clumsily done, so perhaps we are looking at a couple of different people working on this hilt.

The wooden fitting between the hilt & blade does not bear any resemblance at all to the usual metal fitting, additionally, the hilt sits on top of this wooden fitting not within it.

Something about the sarung also seems a little strange to me, & that is that the metal collar that covers the joint between the top part of the sarung & the bottom part of the sarung is of a style that I have never seen, either in the hand, or in a photo.

Now, let me put this upfront:- my knowledge of Bugis & Peninsula keris is only slight, but I have handled quite a lot of this style of keris over the years, going back into the 1950's there were many more of this type of keris available for purchase in Australia than there were Javanese & Balinese keris.

The various variations in the norm that I believe I can see in this keris all have the appearance work done by a collector from a society other than the originating society.

This opinion could well be incorrect, and if it can be demonstrated that it is incorrect then I will willingly withdraw it.

If I had this hilt myself, I would carry out a detailed examination under magnification & I would not neglect an internal examination of the tang hole.

Today, 05:03 AM	#6
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,032	Adam, I did not suggest that this was a repair of damage caused by the over drilling of a tang hole, I am merely relating what I have seen in the past. Something I have never seen is a hilt that has been made by gluing pieces of wood together & then carving those pieces of wood. Moreover, parts of the hilt appear to be genuinely old, other parts of it do not. What I believe I can see is that we have a hilt with some sections of very high contrast material, the lines of demarcation between these contrasting zones are very crisp & well defined, however, in some places it does appear that the grain of the wood continues across the lines of demarcation. There is something else that is also apparent, sections of the wood have quite high chatoyance. Further, the crest of the hilt appears to have been replaced, and although this would be the most simple of repairs, it has been very clumsily done, so perhaps we are looking at a couple of different people working on this hilt. The wooden fitting between the hilt & blade does not bear any resemblance at all to the usual metal fitting, additionally, the hilt sits on top of this wooden fitting not within it. Something about the sarung also seems a little strange to me, & that is that the metal collar that covers the joint between the top part of the sarung & the bottom part of the sarung is of a style that I have never seen, either in the hand, or in a photo. Now, let me put this upfront:- my knowledge of Bugis & Peninsula keris is only slight, but I have handled quite a lot of this style of keris over the years, going back into the 1950's there were many more of this type of keris available for purchase in Australia than there were Javanese & Balinese keris. The various variations in the norm that I believe I can see in this keris all have the appearance work done by a collector from a society other than the originating society. This opinion could well be incorrect, and if it can be demonstrated that it is incorrect then I will willingly withdraw it. If I had this hilt myself, I would carry out a detailed examination under magnification & I would not neglect an internal examination of the tang hole.