15 luk Bali?

A. G. Maisey · 22nd December 2011, 09:22 PM

It is finely polished, Jean, but I feel it is not a particularly old blade. My opinion is purely based on a minor aspect of stylistic execution, and I must emphasise:- it is only opinion.

It is true that Lombok blades very often have a textured finish, however, a Bali-style blade that originates from Lombok could have either type of finish, and very often, recently cleaned and stained blades originating from Bali have the same type of finish, because the blade gets sent to Jawa to be cleaned and stained.

I feel that the whole subject of whether a Bali-style blade originates from Bali or Lombok becomes quite confused, and especially with older blades it is very probably a specious distinction, as when Lombok was colonised by Bali, that part of Lombok which was governed by Bali was very probably regarded as Balinese by the Balinese.

Peoples of the Archipelago tend not to view water as a barrier, but rather as an open roadway, so the Euro-centric idea of islands being separated one from the other was not an automatic assumption in the minds of the peoples of the Archipelago.

I feel that an adequate designation for this keris would be:- "Balinese keris, possibly originating from Lombok"

22nd December 2011, 09:22 PM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	It is finely polished, Jean, but I feel it is not a particularly old blade. My opinion is purely based on a minor aspect of stylistic execution, and I must emphasise:- it is only opinion. It is true that Lombok blades very often have a textured finish, however, a Bali-style blade that originates from Lombok could have either type of finish, and very often, recently cleaned and stained blades originating from Bali have the same type of finish, because the blade gets sent to Jawa to be cleaned and stained. I feel that the whole subject of whether a Bali-style blade originates from Bali or Lombok becomes quite confused, and especially with older blades it is very probably a specious distinction, as when Lombok was colonised by Bali, that part of Lombok which was governed by Bali was very probably regarded as Balinese by the Balinese. Peoples of the Archipelago tend not to view water as a barrier, but rather as an open roadway, so the Euro-centric idea of islands being separated one from the other was not an automatic assumption in the minds of the peoples of the Archipelago. I feel that an adequate designation for this keris would be:- "Balinese keris, possibly originating from Lombok"