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Old 23rd June 2022, 06:35 PM   #4
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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Sid, your photos from Alan's catalog don't seem to have attached, though i am uncertain how you downloaded photos from that page since i think there is a lock on that and i am also concerned that it may not be appropriate to show them here anyway unless, of course, you were the buyer of that keris. So maybe that is for the best.
For now those photos are still up so anyone who wants to compare can go to Alan's website to see them.
I do see similarities between these pamors though so this one may have been created with a similar method, though i don't think the Javanese name would apply. Likewise i am also hesitant to categorize a Bali/Lombok by era with Mataram, which as you know, is an Islamic Javanese sultanate.
I am not, however, convinced that this keris is as old as the Mataram period or even a Balinese blade. Various elements of this blade do not seem quite Balinese to me. The sogokan, for one, is poorly cut and shallow. The pamor lines do not look like Balinese execution as they seem to be to spread and look "cloudy". Even the iron itself does not look like what i expect to see on Bali keris, though the colour in you photos could be more due to the photography than the blade itself. And it certainly does not have the usual Balinese polished surface (which could point to Lombok, i suppose). Also, though there might be exceptions, we rarely find pamor on the gonjo of old Balinese blades. But the blade itself does seem to show some age. So over all this one is a bit of a mystery to me regarding origin. Regarding quality, if this is truly a Balinese example i would place lower, rather than high on the quality scale.
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