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Originally Posted by David
Why would a Javanese prince bring a bunch of keris to the Netherlands to sell if it was not for the money?  |
David, It could have been that the Javanese prince got offended by someone Dutch and sold them poor keris as a joke on them.
Possibly he was mad at the auction house and was getting some kind of twisted revenge.
You know that Javanese nobility can be easily offended and have their own methods of "getting even."
But, maybe he did need money. Who knows?
But as David also said, it would be highly disprectful to a Javanese kris NOT to have new dress. But sometimes very high quality Javanese keris are in very plain, but well-made new dress. Like a beautiful woman in a simple black dress. But old-looking, patinated, dress to a Javanese old-school collector would be like having your wife in rags -- dirty rags.
Some of my best pieces, indeed my favorite, a Mataram Senopaten from the time of Sultan Agung (early 1600s) has very simple and plain recent dress.
Often fine Nihonto have a plain scabbard that holds the resting blade.
It is possible that the original scabbard got separated from this kris and this was made for a "resting place."
I have read that when a Moro commissioned a smith to make him a kris, he might ask for different things at the expense of others, ie, a very fine blade and a lesser hilt. One of the many things I like about PI Kris is the incredible diversity of these pieces.
I have some pictures for Ben, and though I did not exactly understand what he wants to see, I have made a couple of pictures.
It is unquestionable that this scabbard did have something just under the wrongko, but it looks more like it was rattan or possibly wire?
I used clamps to hold the scabbard halves together, perhaps I'll make a silver band.