Old Tajung Keris(es?)

[kai]

Hello Gustav,

Kai, may I ask you to explain the bit of difference of the Basel Tajong's "simple cup" and an "usual" Teming?

In the tajong hilts with slender/conical buah pinang, the temin/ferrule seems to have the function to avoid damage to the buah pinang (which seems to be very prone to fatal splitting - more so than in most other keris hilts IME).

The cup style is close to a plain Sumatran selut/pendokok and without offering any structural support it won't really help to avoid splitting of the buah pinang.

Arguably, the functional difference of a ferrule vs. cup may not be much of a consideration for the very high-end examples like the one in Basel since a splendid look may be much more important than function...

Regards,
Kai