Two kerisses compared

[kai]

Hello Johan,

Friends, I realise you might think I am embarking on a folly here, but please bear with me. As you already know, I have these two kerisses, a Javanese one and a Bugis from the Straits/Riau areas. Please see the pics, which I hope I have taken and arranged in a clear & big enough form. The question I want to ask you does not revolve around monetary value, neither do I require a valuation of any sort. But I do want to know something about the "worth" of these two items in comparison to one another. By "worth"-comparison I rather mean something like:
1 As genuine antique kerisses they are cultural items which I as their curator must conserve and protect, but can you collectors with knowledge and experience far superior to mine, discern that one of these two might be older than the other? It does not satisfy that I am guessing they are both "mid-nineteenth century". They are too different and not deserving to be simply clumped like that.

I'd suggest you are trying to compare apples to oranges here: Both were done in different cultures with different aesthetics - thus, they are bound to look different even if they happened to be born on the same day.

2 Would collectors as a group be more inclined to collect or specialise in kerisses of Javanese origin? Or would more collectors be inclined to go for the more ornate hilts of the Bugis-type kerisses?

Well, Alan originally set out to collect all keris - happily, he slacked off sometime during his project and left a few for us to play with...

I'd venture to guess that this mainly boils down to personal preferences and/or chance (like being born into a given culture or traveling to some region first, etc.). There may be many reasons one could think of to rationalize on our individual choices; while this may be fun, arguing about preferences won't help you - just keep collecting what you like to live with! (And do leave a few keris for us... )

3 Would the fact that one of my kerisses has a wavy blade, make it more desirable in the eyes of the average keris collector? And in the eyes of the people of keris culture?

The latter would heavily depend on which culture someone belongs to! I'm fairly sure, there is no average collector out there either!

Collectors in their early phase may be kinda driven towards wavy blades since they are looking more exotic. After a while, most avid collectors realize that quality is much more important than any detail like wavy vs. straight, age, you-name-it. However, how to judge quality is another can of worms or two...


I believe that it would certainly be worth trying to get both keris into an acceptable state for the culture of origin: The keris Jawa is complete but certainly needs warangan treatment to show all pamor details. The other keris will need more effort to complete its fittings but will certainly be worth it; it may also be a good idea to clean and etch the blade with vinegar (possibly several times to get a good finish).

Regards,
Kai