Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Need example of Pamors: Meteor, Luwu, and modern Nickel

A. G. Maisey · 10th June 2010, 11:53 PM

Yes David, I do agree.

You need hands on tuition from somebody with a lot of knowledge and experience, and access to examples.

Its not quite meaningless when you move outside the area of quality, it can still be applied to a degree, for instance, tangguh Segaluh is extremely recognisable, it has almost never been copied in later periods, but it is hardly ever a high quality or expensive tangguh; Pajajaran, Tuban, Mataram Matesih, Godean --- and other tangguh --- are generally speaking not of exceptional quality, and not particularly expensive. But when you start to use the system on anything other than very good keris, it becomes more a rough indicator of age and value than anything else.

I personally like to think of it as a system of classification that can assist with an appraisal of value.

In Jawa it is regarded as the foundation of understanding, but in the rest of the world it is pretty much irrelevant.

There is much we can learn about keris without getting too involved with tangguh --- unless we live in Jawa.

10th June 2010, 11:53 PM	#9
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,697	Yes David, I do agree. You need hands on tuition from somebody with a lot of knowledge and experience, and access to examples. Its not quite meaningless when you move outside the area of quality, it can still be applied to a degree, for instance, tangguh Segaluh is extremely recognisable, it has almost never been copied in later periods, but it is hardly ever a high quality or expensive tangguh; Pajajaran, Tuban, Mataram Matesih, Godean --- and other tangguh --- are generally speaking not of exceptional quality, and not particularly expensive. But when you start to use the system on anything other than very good keris, it becomes more a rough indicator of age and value than anything else. I personally like to think of it as a system of classification that can assist with an appraisal of value. In Jawa it is regarded as the foundation of understanding, but in the rest of the world it is pretty much irrelevant. There is much we can learn about keris without getting too involved with tangguh --- unless we live in Jawa.