In Surakarta there used to be a very famous art connoisseur, who has now left this world.
He had guided many fellow Indonesians with his knowledge and was known internationally. He had connections at the very highest level of Indonesian society, and almost invariably, when any officially sanctioned endeavour in the field of Indonesian art occurred, this man was involved.He was particularly well known in the field of keris.
There is no doubt that this man had immense knowledge, and his knowledge of the keris was absolutely first class.
He was constantly on the lookout for high quality and unusual keris, and he maintained links, mostly through agents, with many keris dealers in Central Jawa and beyond.
He was very, very well known in the keris trade, and people were constantly striving to create new designs he had not seen, and variations of design that he had not previously encountered. He was very well known within a segment of the keris trade as being always able to be deceived by something that he had not previously seen.Because of this a few people worked continually on producing keris and keris related items specifically for feeding to this extremely knowledgeable and well known connoisseur with an international reputation. Mostly their forgeries and other deceptions were successful.
Centini wrote 200 years ago that if you want to learn about keris you must go to the market place.
Nothing has changed since then.
There is one basic rule that should come before all others in identifying that which is genuine and that which is false in the world of the keris:-
recognise quality.
This will not invariably protect you, but at the level of the market where most people who collect in the western world buy, it is a very, very good rule to live by.
Quality does not necessarily equate to expensive, but it invariably equates to artistic sensibility.
In this hilt under discussion, can anybody see any artistic sensibility in a lump of wood with a coarse grain running the wrong way glued to a reasonably well carved hilt?
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