Hello again
I have learned a lot about this keris from you guys already, thank you very much
I have also learned a whole lot about keris in general since I have joined this forum, I tried to look up things about keris online quite a bit since. A month ago I literally had no idea at all about them... ignorant to the "wavy dagger" level, as I said. I realise now that I should apologise to my keris for my ignorance. Their spiritual significance and status in Indonesian society as well as the naga is fascinating. I had literally never heard of all that before.
I have learned now that my particular keris might actually have the potential to be a very rare and valuable object. When I say valuable I explicitly want to state that I mean this in a historical sense, I do not want to nor intend to sell my keris nor do I want to discuss the monetary value of it. It will not be sold. I merely stated the price I bought it for to underline my incredible luck in getting this. I say "might actually have the potential", I don't want to jump to conclusions, but if I understood things correctly, if this turns out to be genuinely old, it might be interesting, or am I wrong there? The person who sold it must have had no idea what it was at all. Was just one of many "wavy daggers" at his stand, claiming to all be Kris from Indonesia, and of course he claimed they were all forged from meteorite steel
Didn't believe that even back then, but I bought one anyways... "pretty wavy daggers", just had never seen them before. I have no idea why I picked this one in particular. I think I particularily thought it was especially nicely wavy for some reason. I am a collector of a different kind from you, I don't usually collect historical blades. If that keris turns out to be authentic, it is my only antique piece. Other than that, I only have contemporary blades that I like because of their pretty damascus steel patterns (particularly Manfred Sachse... so sorry I misspelled his name in my initial post
). I have always thought "one day, I'll find out more about this thing" for so many years... and over the holidays I remembered I had this thing and thought I'd finally give it a try with AI. Might sound odd to you experts, but I thought it was some rusty old thing. But "nice and wavy and you can tell the damascus pattern is there" (what I now know is the pamor). I never even noticed the naga on it, believe it or not, I just never looked at it all that much. That came to my attention first when I took closeup pictures to post somewhere eventually for my research journey. The bit I thought for decades was molten suddenly turned out to be, when looked at properly, a finely crafted "dragon head with a hat on"... and then I saw the body snaking along the blade... weird moment!
With AI so readily available I figured I could go and give it a try to help me identify what it was, I only knew it was called a "Kris" in german and went from there. However, I quickly found out that AI is not an expert on keris, I got very widely varying answers, but it helped me find a forum of experts, so I found you
Since my last post I have read a lot on the subject, but it is so much to comprehend
In my reading, I have also discovered that you guys aren't just hobby experts or fellow hobby collectors in this forum as I initially thought. You guys are some top level experts, wow... thank you all for your input and having my ignorant self amongst you
If I understood things correctly Mr. Maisey even is an incredibly knowledgable Empu, I also only realise my ignorance on not knowing just *how* incredibly experienced you guys are on the subject. Mr. Maisey, thank you very much for your time and posting your expertise!
I have realised by now that pictures will not be sufficient to properly judge this keris. AI is suggesting I present it to an auction house, but as I said I don't want to sell it. Other than that it is suggesting I contact the ethnological museum in Berlin... I would be grateful for someone more knowledgable than me or AI on the subject to tell me if this is something that a museum would be interested to at least look at to study? Or am I misjudging this completely? Or do you guys have any better suggestions who I can contact on the subject in germany? As I said I don't want to sell it, I just am looking for more professional help to properly judge and analyse it - which apparently has to be done in person if I understood this correctly. As incredibly interesting as the study of keris is, it seems to be a rather rare hobby in germany
Any and all comments are welcome, thank you very much
I have no idea what the naga seems to be "holding" and I can't manage to make a guess on what the pamor pattern is called... I would be grateful if any of you could help me out further