Dapur of this Javanese keris?

A. G. Maisey · 8th April 2010, 12:57 AM

Thanks for those pics Kai Wee.

A gandhik this steeply angled would normally cause us to think Madura, but based upon what I can see in the pics, I'm not prepared to say that it is Madura. Its a peculiar keris in a number of ways, and although my initial impression was that it was not an altered keris, I am now in two minds. It is not a high quality keris, so we cannot really apply strict standards to it:- a lot of quite decent keris were made in areas away from direct center-of-power influence, and by competent people who were not necessarily empus, or even pandai keris. These keris are often a mixture of styles, and this makes a classification difficult, perhaps logically impossible.

I don't think I'm inclined to give a dhapur for this keris.

In fact, it is often better to describe a keris in terms of its ricikan, rather than try to force it into the strict parameters of a dhapur.

8th April 2010, 12:57 AM	#8
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,015	Thanks for those pics Kai Wee. A gandhik this steeply angled would normally cause us to think Madura, but based upon what I can see in the pics, I'm not prepared to say that it is Madura. Its a peculiar keris in a number of ways, and although my initial impression was that it was not an altered keris, I am now in two minds. It is not a high quality keris, so we cannot really apply strict standards to it:- a lot of quite decent keris were made in areas away from direct center-of-power influence, and by competent people who were not necessarily empus, or even pandai keris. These keris are often a mixture of styles, and this makes a classification difficult, perhaps logically impossible. I don't think I'm inclined to give a dhapur for this keris. In fact, it is often better to describe a keris in terms of its ricikan, rather than try to force it into the strict parameters of a dhapur.