Ariel, I am & I was not in the slightest degree irritated, I was only trying to repay compliment with compliment.
Until we get involved in the upper levels of any market, it can be difficult to come to terms with the values involved, and in the case of keris, we are often dealing with gold, diamonds & other precious materials.
There is about one ons, or 100 grams in a silver Javanese pendok.
A gold pendok the same size will weigh approximately twice this.
Javanese & Balinese gold smiths usually work in 22K gold, not 18K and when we get down to 14K they do not even regard that as gold, it is suasa (swoso).
Today's rate for 22K gold, in Australia, is AUD76.192 per gram
AUD76.192 = US55.35
So, a gold Javanese pendok has a weight of +/- 200grams
US55.35 X 200 = US11070
That's just a Javanese pendok, Balinese pendok are much bigger, now add the gold handle, the diamonds, rubies, emeralds.
We haven't even got to the keris blade, the kinatah, the precious wood or ivory.
We have not yet considered the cost of manufacture, nor have we considered provenance.
Michael German was an English antique arms dealer, in 1967 he published a little booklet that was called "A Guide to Oriental Daggers & Swords", in that booklet he states:-
"--- the fine royal kris which recently fetched the sum of $2940 (one thousand & fifty pounds) at Christies Auction Rooms, and was, in the experience of the writer, the highest price ever realised by an Oriental dagger."
There is a photo of this kris in the booklet.
Over the last 30 years I have seen hilts of the same type that is fitted to this Christies keris, sell at auction for in excess of $50,000 --- that is only the gold hilt I'm talking about, not the complete keris.
The +/-3K for the Christies keris is most certainly just a thing of the past these days, but the fact remains that at the top end of the keris market we do not start to get serious until we're into middling to high 5 figures, and the items with high intrinsic value will nearly always go into 6 figures.
Another fact would also seem to be obvious:- with the value of land in my country, & in many others, as it stands at the present time, dollar figures running into 6 are really not all that impressive when we are thinking in terms of investment.
As I wrote in a previous post, $10 will get you a keris.
However when you get up near the top of the market you might need to take a second mortgage on your house. I actually did this once.
|