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Old 16th January 2023, 07:39 PM   #3
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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Hi Ian. Your keris is dressed in Lampung form, the southern end of Sumatra, and the hilt form is usually described as one of the burung (bird) forms, though this long-nosed variety seems to be specific to Lampung.
I would probably place this one in the first half of the 20th century. Unlike Rasdan, i am fairly convinced that keris making did indeed end somewhere around the start of WWII and did not really start again until Dietrich Drescher kickstarted it up again in the mid 70s.
Now, i am not convinced that means that there was not a single keris made anywhere in Indonesia post WWII until that moment in 1974 when Drescher commissioned that first blade, but for all intents and purposes the art was dead.
This does not, however, mean that no one was production of keris dress in that time. I would imagine that there were still people who valued their personal keris from 1940-1974 who would still need to maintain the dress on their keris so they probably did find craftspeople to do that work for them during that period in time. But as far as i know there is absolutely no evidence of any regular keris blade production during that time. I do recall that Alan once made mention of a fellow he knew about who may have been making a small amount of keris prior to 1974, but it was not a common occurrence.
I would say this dress is not particularly high end for sure, but neither is it the bottom of the barrel. And it surely looked much better when new and the fittings were bright and fresh. I suppose there is a possibility this dress could be post WWII, given the time frame you mention, but i believe the blade must be from before that time, before the war itself.
I have attached a link to an old thread that posts a fair number of examples of this hilt form.
I hav also posted a photo of a similar keris to yours that was deemed to be from the first half of the 20th century.
I see no reason to consider your keris as a "tourist" item even if it is not a high quality item and the dress appears a to have an "exotic nature".

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13248
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