Thread: Mahesa/Kebo
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Old 10th June 2020, 03:19 AM   #5
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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I had forgotten that David, but when I looked at the dress it did look like the sort of thing that could have come from me.

Re blade origin, what I look for are indicators, and then it becomes a case of process of elimination. A primary indicator, if present, is the ron dha. With this keris, the rondha is not distinctive enough for me to place it anywhere except "Jawa". The pawakan, the other features, such as kembang kacang don't really point me in any direction. That pretty much leaves me with material, and I'd need to feel this to come to some sort of defensible opinion. If the blade is inclined to lightness, I still feel that its sort of Gresiky --- if it was me who gave it that previously --- but the material really doesn't look like Gresik.

I don't know, maybe just a general sort of "East Jawa" might be OK. I don't like Central Jawa or Jogja. North Coast? I can't see that. Some unknown desa somewhere in Jawa? Maybe, but the level of craftsmanship looks a bit too nice for that.

It is simply not always possible to hang a reasonably definite opinion on the geographic location of origin, or on the period, with a lot of keris related things. Where we have very high level quality, or very definite style, yeah, we can take a crack at it, but with something that is more or less generic it is only guesswork --- or salesmanship.
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