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Originally Posted by Tim Simmons
I should have added this pic. So it is not antique ? Age guess? I do not think that really matters although we all really want to see old one examples as collectors, but for a museum which is about culture as much as preserving the past it does not really matter. Do you think the shiny is gold?
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Tim, it is not a question of age at all really. The question for me, in fact, is about culture. What culture does this keris represent, Javanese, Bali, Lombok? The question for me is whether this dress came together in a legitimate cultural context or if it is more a dealer special, cobbled together with pieces that do not represent the same keris culture.
The photo you added is a little helpful, but for me not that much. Others might be able to glean more from it. The Singo seems a bit odd to me, but this doesn't look like a Lombok blade (it certainly isn't Balinese) and so from what i can see i would still place it in Jawa . I cannot tell from the image if the kinatah (the shiny) is real gold or not. It appears to be a blade that has some age at least. But the hilt is certainly contemporary and as Alan has pointed out, a Bali style that was probably made in Jawa. Alan would know more about what market such hilts were specifically made for, but many collectors tend to look at this particular type of hilt as not being all that serious of an effort. They often show up on more touristy ensembles. And the pendok is using Jogya motifs that would seem out of place for a keris meant for Bali. It's not so surprising to find a Javanese blade dressed for another keris culture, but it does seem odd that it would then use Javanese motifs visible to the public as well as this type of hilt.
