Small Bugis Sepokal

[kai]

Hello Gustav,

This is a really sweet piece - I like it!

The frequency of twists is quite big, yet there are no forging flaws, all's thigth.

I assume you mean that the number of twists is relatively low? This is indeed an unusual feature I can't remember having seen with keris Jawa.

One might wish the pamor control being a tad better; however this is good work, especially for Bugis standards.

The crosspiece of sheath is made from a very well chosen piece of wood, the sunburst pattern is placed quite perfectly.

Yeah, very nice wood!

The carvings on hilt almost seem to reproduce in 3D the chatoyance patterns of it.
The hilt is of shape commonly attributed to Selayar, though I would want to see a prove other then van Z's book for such attribution.

The details and wood grains are tough to see. Could you post some hilt pics taken in full sun, please?

I'm not convinced that this hilt belongs to the type usually associated with Selayar (the latter is also known from Sumatra and Tammens reports it from Kalimantan Barat); I see some semblance but the head doesn't exhibit the typical twist; also the carving pattern seems very distinct from the typical examples, doesn't it?

[BTW, I can't remember Albert vZ writing anything about these hilts?]

Regards,
Kai