Thread: Bugis Keris
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Old 4th April 2021, 08:29 PM   #26
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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Thanks Gustav for posting all these fine examples of Pipit Teleng hilts. To be clear, while i did not respond to your first post on this thread, i most certainly saw it. Forgive me for not responded, but by the time you had posted i had already come to most of the conclusions you were making and then became distracted from other posts and questions.
I agree that your use of the word "bulging" to describe the eyes of most Pipit Teleng is a bit misplaced. But i would even refrain from using the term "protruding". The eyes are indeed raised a bit from the surface in many of your examples, but they don't jump out at you as i would expect something described as bulging or even protruding would. They are simply delineated is a relief manner.
I do think it strange that you seem to be so dismissive of this keris because it is not the perfected Pipit Teleng form you seem to so admire. For me that is part of its charm and frankly i would take my hilt over any of the other Pipit Teleng hilts you have chosen to show here. It has a spirit and personality that the others lack for me. Truth be told, i actually don't generally like the Pipit Teleng form. To my eye it usually comes off as awkward and uncomfortable and yes, stiff. But i do quite enjoy mine. And i am sure that there are indeed many more awesome examples of these hilts from this "experimental" time period, but you have not shown any of those examples here so i would still hope that someone can present another hilt that i can truly compare with this one. I am not looking for the perfect example of the Pipit Teleng form as you seem to be, so the ways in which mine does not fulfill this ideal are really unimportant to me. If this hilt is "unconvincing" to you it doesn't really matter. And no, i don't think this hilt looks the way it does because of a carver's error or his inability to work well with ivory. I think it simply is what it is. So i would still like to see other hilts like it, because i don't believe anything you have posted compares well with it, especially when it comes to the spiral eyes and floral motifs it presents.
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