Celebes keris?

[Harley]

Hi Henk,

You guys are giving me a hard time , just kidding, i appreciate the opinions
you've given.
I know that it's something thats not unusual, but why am i trying to give the lonely blade's a sheath that would fit for the area they come from, if i didn't take notice of it with this one?
I am not in a hurry, because i,m still busy with the other sheaths, so i have time to think about it.

regards,
Ben

[David]

Originally Posted by Harley

You guys are giving me a hard time , just kidding, i appreciate the opinions you've given.
I know that it's something thats not unusual, but why am i trying to give the lonely blade's a sheath that would fit for the area they come from, if i didn't take notice of it with this one?
I am not in a hurry, because i,m still busy with the other sheaths, so i have time to think about it.

You know Harley, i am in full agreement with Henk. If indeed this sheath appears to have been made for this blade i would leave it dressed just as is. You often find blades from Jawa dressed in other styles either because the blade travelled in trade to one of the other islands or it's owner migrated to one of these other islands and decided to dress his blade in the style of his new home. From my perspective these keris come with a history and i am always surprised to find that many collectors want to lose that history in order to either upgrade a keris that they have no family connection with or dress it in a manner that they deem more culturally correct. This seems a shame to me as the history of a keris is an important part of what i am trying to collect and maintain in my own collection. Certainly it is true that we sometimes run across "frankenkeris" creations thrown together by dealers just trying to make a sale, but if it seems at all that this marriage of blade and dress has any real ethnographic history to it i would just leave it be.