I dunno, I dont think too hard about price trends these days. Ive seen too much wierdness in the past few years to try to make rhyme or reason. Somedays ivory pieces go low, whereas plain examplar pieces go high. When it comes down to it, price is determined by the collector, and perhaps this is just the piece to fit a hole in a collection. I know Ive spent more on pieces that fit into the collection as a whole, rather than on its individual merit.
While a very nice kris, it has a broken cockatua, dented clamps, and is missing a butt piece on the tagub, which for me would take it out of that price range. The blade is nice, with a very interesting fuller, but I do not like the talisman markings, they are shallow and there is something about them that strikes me as funny. But then, Im not the one who bought it. I am also concerned that the scabbard is not original, the proportion in size is just a little on the largish size. But then Im nit-picking here.
As for mid 19th century, while there is no real system for placing these at specific dates, and we've had our share of arguments, there is something about this piece that to me hits me as a late 19th century piece, probably the crispness of the features that everyone has noted as being unique. For an older piece, I would expect more wear from use/care. Of course, I suppose this piece was collected by a Westerner newly made, but then... Anyways, that is just my .0002 cents.
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