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Originally Posted by Sajen
Thank you Alan. 
Hello Peter,
two other observations. First, by your later and much better pictures you can see that the blade isn't original to this scabbard. The "mouth" was made smaller with help from some sort of filler.
Second, the mendak isn't a Yogya one.
I really doubt that a keris like this coming from an abdi dalam. He will fit his keris with an adequate mendak and when the scabbard of his keris is broken he will let made a new one for the blade and don't let refit an old one.
Like Alan I know that purveyors in Indonesia are very imaginative by creating storys when they want to sell something (and not only in Indonesia).
Sorry to speak open words to you and I hope you haven't pay to much for this keris. You have a nice and somewhat rare sheath form, a very nice mendak and so far I can see a nice hilt. The weakest part of this ensemble is indeed the blade.
Don't worry, we all have learned the hard way.
Best regards,
Detlef |
No no, you have all of my gratitude.
The Keris is without a doubt very old, as I mentioned earlier, to me the blade is real thin and fragile. The only way to make certain of things is really by getting your hand on it. I spent about $300 on this Keris and to tell you the truth, I'm not that upset. This Keris is one of the first set of collections that I have. As Alan said, education does not come cheap
And I try to be grateful of what I have.
My contact has very good relationship to a couple of Surakartan Abdi Dalems and a Yogyakartan ..or so he claimed. And he seems to be pretty vocal in the Keris world. He mentioned that he'd receive an honorary title (KRT) from the Sultan sometime next year.
Alan, that is some intricate way of doing business
But I can imagine that in the third world country.