Thread: Old Bali keris
View Single Post
Old 14th April 2011, 10:50 PM   #10
A. G. Maisey
Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 6,698
Default

As has already been agreed, this is a good keris.

I feel that the burl atasan that is currently a part of the wrongko may not be the original mate to the gandar, but a replacement of the original. From the photo I am not able to say if this is a recent replacement or not, nor can I say whether or not it is teak burl ( jati gembol). It is burl,certainly, but jati gembol? I don't know.

As Hartadi has commented, this burl atasan does strike a discordant note. I have had a great many Balinese keris pass through my hands, and I have seen many more, but I have not ever seen a combination of woods that fight against each other, as these two do. To my mind this combination of materials is out of character with Balinese aesthetics. The atasan would work well with a pendok, but not with the current bare gandar. My feeling is that the original atasan had been damaged and a person with little understanding of Balinese aesthetics used the best piece of wood he could obtain to replace it --- make no mistake:- the burl atasan is a fine piece of wood, its just that it is out of place.

Add in the pelet handle and I cannot visualise this keris as an item of dress, its appearance is too unsettling.

Comments have been made regarding the gems and gold that could be found in Balinese uwer.

When a Balinese decorates anything at all, including keris, the dominant principle is to obtain a stunning final appearance. To obtain this appearance they used ( and use) any materials at all, with very little regard for the value of the materials. Where gems were included in keris dress, they were included for reasons other than their appearance, for instance, diamonds were a protective device against poison.

I have seen and handled royal keris handles that combined diamonds, good quality rubies, and glass. Mostly the gems found in Balinese keris dress are not worth much.

The only Balinese keris I have seen and handled that have gold incorporated into their dress are two royal keris that were at one time in the possession of the Raja of Badung.

Of the hundreds of Balinese uwer that I have seen, the only two gold uwer were on these keris. I have a bottle full of old Balinese uwer, and not one of these is gold, or silver, and most are set with pastes rather than natural stones. Because of this, I doubt that the keris which were in European public collections during WWII were stripped of anything. I would be inclined to accept that a Balinese keris that came into a European collection pre-WWII and that is now without a uwer, was very probably without that uwer at the time it was collected.
A. G. Maisey is offline   Reply With Quote