Is This A Royal Keris?

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

As to the confusion that might be caused at some time in the future by the current production of fine keris, I rather think not. This production in later periods of earlier keris styles has been happening for a very long time, and it doesn't really cause those who understand the keris much of a problem.

Well Alan, i like to think about those that don't really understand keris as well. That and the fact that as time goes on it seems to me that there are less and less people who really understand the keris. Where i see the problem is that these gold and jewel encrusted current era creations are often being sold under the headline "Royal Keris" to western collectors. It's not a matter of my own personal preferences vs. the existing culture. As information unfortunately fades this general mis-information gets past along from owner to owner. That it is a royal keris because it is dressed in "royal" materials. It isn't really a matter of whether or not you or i can recognize that such keris have no actual royal affiliation. The stories grow like tales of meteoric ore or other keris half-truth we have come to know. So i think i can at least partially see where Dave Henkel is coming from with his statement.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The use of garish materials? Old Bali keris, and even more recent ones can be about as garish as garish gets.

Well, i used the word "garish" in quotation marks for a reason. Frankly i don't really consider expensive old Bali dress to be as much "garish" as extravagant. I do find some of the more recent examples a bit more on the garish side though. They manage to somehow use valuable materials to create an end product that somehow looks cheap. I am, of course, talking about items that come up for sale to the Western market, mostly on auction sites like eBay. I am sure that the really high end work never gets seen by the West in such venues.

I was hoping that you might add some information about any known proscriptions against wearing gold in Jawa, Bali or Madura. Dave has already expressed that in the Malay world gold was strictly reserved for the royal court. I did not think such a restriction existed in Jawa or Bali. The only thing i found on this in Bali is the following from Wiener's Visible and Invisible Realms:
"...in precolonial Bali no one, not even the Déwa Agung, was allowed to wear gold to the top of Mount Agung, to the shrine called Tirtra Mas (Golden Holy Water). The sanctions for doing so , as the narrative shows, are supernatural...Another prohibition involving gold marked social hierarchy. Only members of the royal family were allowed to wear gold on their head."
However, none of this seems to prohibit having gold on your keris or keris dress.