Quote:
Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
I can very easily understand why many noted Indonesian collectors dress their keris in new, bling-bling scabbard & hilt.
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Hello Alan,
I have nothing against this javanese tradition of replacing an old dress for prestige reasons provided that the blade and dress are of compatible origin, e.g. a javanese blade in a javanese or even madurese scabbard is acceptable to me, but not a sumatrese scabbard & hilt.
I remember a regretted Yogya kris dealer (Suryono) who got more than 100 kris scabbards in good condition for peanuts because a rich Indonesian collector wanted to replace them by more "precious" ones.
And I am not ashamed of my Eurocentric position (preference for well-matching blade & dress) which is in line with the philosophy of antiques collectors and museums in Europe.
Regards