Hi All,
I just went to the Asian Art Museum. There's a great exhibition of "The Art of the Samurai" which would be really off-topic to discuss here.
What got me sad was the keris display. Not that I'm a keris collector, but the display saddened me. It's two cases mounted on the wall, near the restrooms, between displays of south-east Asian statuary and art.
Where to start?
--the keris were labeled "daggers." The case included a few other blades, but only the island of origin and age (to the nearest century) were given. All were labeled "daggers." In the Japanese galleries, the blades were given their Japanese names (i.e., they weren't "swords" they were tachi, katana, wakizashi, etc).
--The case was flat plexiglass, about 10 cm deep, and the blades were flat against the wall. where the hilts would have hit the plexiglas, they were twisted until they were flat against the wall.
--On all the keris and most of the blades, the pamor was invisible unless you could catch the light properly. They haven't been stained in years.
--There was active rust on a couple of the blades.
Understand why I didn't take any pictures? I'll bet many of you have seen similar examples from other art museums.
In any case, the museum appears to take good care of artifacts where they have an interested population and help from collectors. The Chinese and Japanese exhibits showed far greater sophistication than the Korean and Indonesian sections, something I expected given San Francisco's demographics.
That said, I have a question. Do any of you know any keris experts in the Bay Area who would be willing to work with the museum to fix that exhibit?
In my inexpert opinion, they have some decent (and old) blades, and I'd much rather see them displayed in their full beauty, rather than sitting on the wall as a display of rusting curiosities. Even getting the labels right would be a great start.
Daggers. Bah.
Best,
F