Shame about the condition but it has a nice story and as it would not do much good to restore or re-dress it, its so far gone, I would recommend that you leave it be. Restoring or re-dressing it will not make it look nice anyway.
The piece is not Bugis per-se though. It is a native keris in a style typical of Johor-Riau and the Selat Melaka. The Bugis patrimony is there certainly, given the influence of the Bugis in this area - but it is definitely not from Sulawesi. No way to tell precisely where it came from but certainly from around these parts. The pamor is one of the rarer types and worth keeping as an example if nothing else.
|