Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

rasdan · 16th January 2023, 05:41 PM

Hi Ian,

I have nothing to offer regarding the hilt style etc. but to me this is an interesting and important keris as it has the age attached to it. Usually when keris like this popped up, Malaysian collectors will say it is from the 80s and it is a tourist keris as it is rather low quality and the styling it is rather has that “fake exotic” nature. The blade probably was not made to be a weapon – it is not hardened as it was made to be a wall hanger. You mentioned that it is at least 50 years old, if we add another 20 years it has been in your friend’s family, the keris is maybe 70 years old – meaning that it was made around the 50s of even the 40s.

The story goes is that keris production slowed down (some say stopped) during WW2 and only picked up its pace back in the 80s. However, your keris and others that I have seen shows that keris production does not really stop. Some hilts especially the carved figurine hilts show some age but were made from very soft wood and we know there is no way wood as soft at that would last more than 100 years if it was used as weapon grade keris handle. Many Sumatran stuff are even made covered with gold, but I doubt those things were really made for traditional purposes. The styling frequently seems a bit off and the quality is usually poor.

So, the industry was still alive the entire time, at least in some areas. The difference is that why a particular keris was made. Some were probably made for European “oriental rooms”, some probably for local consumption, some were made better than others, some are artificially aged some were not. This really forces us to rethink about the real value of the “historical artifacts” that we amass and see around us.

16th January 2023, 05:41 PM	#2
rasdan Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 367	Hi Ian, I have nothing to offer regarding the hilt style etc. but to me this is an interesting and important keris as it has the age attached to it. Usually when keris like this popped up, Malaysian collectors will say it is from the 80s and it is a tourist keris as it is rather low quality and the styling it is rather has that “fake exotic” nature. The blade probably was not made to be a weapon – it is not hardened as it was made to be a wall hanger. You mentioned that it is at least 50 years old, if we add another 20 years it has been in your friend’s family, the keris is maybe 70 years old – meaning that it was made around the 50s of even the 40s. The story goes is that keris production slowed down (some say stopped) during WW2 and only picked up its pace back in the 80s. However, your keris and others that I have seen shows that keris production does not really stop. Some hilts especially the carved figurine hilts show some age but were made from very soft wood and we know there is no way wood as soft at that would last more than 100 years if it was used as weapon grade keris handle. Many Sumatran stuff are even made covered with gold, but I doubt those things were really made for traditional purposes. The styling frequently seems a bit off and the quality is usually poor. So, the industry was still alive the entire time, at least in some areas. The difference is that why a particular keris was made. Some were probably made for European “oriental rooms”, some probably for local consumption, some were made better than others, some are artificially aged some were not. This really forces us to rethink about the real value of the “historical artifacts” that we amass and see around us.