New edition Gardner's book

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks for your response on the "error" issue, Jean.

I note that all the inadequacies that you have identified are related to the graphic identification of keris components. Some of these I also noted, the Madura hilt is a stand-out, however, I personally do not place a great deal of importance on what could be considered to be relatively minor errors in identification or classification. There is other graphic error also, but its only names, and does not affect understanding.

My principal interest is in the information contained in the text, and there are inadequacies in this too. I'm not going to enumerate what I consider to be incorrect, because I am hoping that David Henckel will provide info on what he sees as incorrect, his criticism of Gardner is very much stronger than mine would be, so he obviously has seen some quite severe flaws that have the potential to affect basic understanding. Read in the context of the time, I cannot see these flaws, but my knowledge is limited to one area, David Henckel's knowledge covers a different area, so I feel it is important for him to identify for us these serious flaws in Gardner's work.