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Old 22nd January 2018, 11:23 AM   #5
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 6,697
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If there never was a ri pandan I would read that as being highly probable that the wrongko was not made by a Solo craftsman.

If there was originally a ri pandan that is now no more, I would read that as a possibility that the wrongko might have been made by a Solo craftsman.

But to my mind it is of absolutely no importance at all who or where the scabbard was made:- it is simply an old scabbard in very worn condition and of no particular quality.

The truly important thing with any keris is only the blade. All items of dress are changed regularly throughout the life of a keris. The dress of a keris can be regarded in a similar way to the dress of a man:- it has a certain value, it transmits a certain message, but it has no soul.

In respect of identification of hilt type, if you have a copy of "Keris Jawa", do a comparison with the chart in that, with the hilt in your hand. That's all I do. I don't use the book, I use a life-size chart that was hand-drawn many years ago by an unknown person, probably a tukang jejeran, but its the same thing.
You just try to find as close agreement as possible to the details in the chart. But remember this:- a very great number of planar hilts are extremely difficult to put a style name on, details of different types will be mixed. These are just the low quality ones that were produced for sale in a market, not the be-spoke ones that were made for a specific person or intent. The high quality hilts are easy to classify, because their details coincide exactly with the details shown in a chart. An accurate classification should have no exceptions to required detail.
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