Keris bargain

[David]

Originally Posted by kai

Hello Thomas,

The fittings are recent examples of a more modern Bali style that was mainly worn by dancers/performers. The dots are not supposed to be wormholes but rather emphasize/contrast the negative space - usually these are more densely placed...

From the limited pics, the blade might well be from Bali.

Kai, i have also heard for some time that this form of dress may have originally developed from a form worm by dancers. I have even used that description of this dress form in the past since i do not like referring to any keris as a "tourist" keris. That said, however, i do not believe i have ever seen a photograph of a Balinese dance with a keris that uses this dress form. Have you?
I would say that even if we can find some actual evidence that this dress form was used at one time for a legitimate Balinese dance or stage form, it seems more than likely to me that the intent an purpose of this particular example was never for any kind of cultural use in dance or theatre, but rather to house a keris intended for those who travel for pleasure.

[A. G. Maisey]

Old blade, West Jawa/North Coast.

Dress is as Kai has stated.

This style did start as a dancer's dress. I have seen a couple that came into Australia before WWII, but the dress style began to proliferate with the tourism boom that began in 1970's.

Two or three reasons for this.

Bali keris have never been as prolific as Javanese keris, less people in Bali and the Balinese people themselves lost faith in the power of their ancestors to protect them after the puputans. There is a story in the keris trade in Jawa that Japanese took thousands of keris out of Bali during WWII and later.

However, there is a continuing need for dress keris and performers' keris in Bali, and that need has often been filled by Javanese keris that are still in Javanese dress. Still, today, you can see the Balinese cultural police who enforce the rules during Hari Nyepi and other important occasions wearing Javanese keris, not Balinese keris.

So this rather exuberant dress style we see here was developed strictly for performers. But the tourists liked it so much that after a kecak dance or whatever they wanted to buy the performers' keris. So this keris style then morphed into a Balinese souvenir.

But it did not start that way.

Personally, I would not change anything on this keris. It is an excellent example of its type. Blade is nothing special, just a blade to hold the dress together.

Apart from which, how do we get a nicely made, nicely fitted wrongko for this blade unless we send it or take it to Jawa? In the Time of Covid? I should be in Jawa right now, but with the situation there I don't reckon I'll be back for another two or three years, minimum.

Of its type, a nice keris.

[Jean]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Old blade, West Jawa/North Coast.

Personally, I would not change anything on this keris. It is an excellent example of its type. Blade is nothing special, just a blade to hold the dress together.

Apart from which, how do we get a nicely made, nicely fitted wrongko for this blade unless we send it or take it to Jawa? In the Time of Covid? I should be in Jawa right now, but with the situation there I don't reckon I'll be back for another two or three years, minimum.

Thank you Alan.
As a collector, I try to get matching pieces and would feel reluctant to mix an old javanese blade with a new balinese scabbard. This blade would look quite nice after cleaning and warangan IMO.
Regarding the subject of shipping kris parcels to and from Java, I am glad to report that I recently received a large parcel from DHL Surabaya without any problem and at a very reasonable cost. However I did not ship any parcel since the Covid Period.
Regards

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, many years ago my standards were perhaps not so far different to your own, but over time my ideas have changed. I have learnt that to the people in the two keris bearing societies that I know best, this approach of matching blade to dress is not quite so important to them as it is to collectors from outside the societies.

It is true that if a Javanese man wishes or needs to wear a keris as an item of formal dress, then that man is more or less compelled to wear a keris in dress that matches with the dress that the man himself is wearing, and this approach is intensified within kraton societies.

But the further one moves away from the influence of a kraton, the less important this. When we move into rural districts in Central Jawa a keris is keris, the compulsion of matching dress disappears for most people.

In Bali for at least the last 50 years a similar situation has prevailed. As I have previously mentioned, men in positions of authority in Bali do not hesitate to wear keris in dress other than that which we would recognise as Balinese.

My own approach as a collector is that if a keris is dressed acceptably for the society from which it comes, then it is not really my place to over-rule the owners of that society and change that dress in order to satisfy my own standards.

I do acknowledge that your standards of collecting are pretty much the norm for the vast bulk of collectors who come from outside keris bearing societies, and I can understand this approach.

[Mickey the Finn]

Have one very similar; it's almost identical except in a few details. I acquired it sans keris. Have a few Balinese keris kamardikan which it may or may not fit. I haven't yet gone so far as to check if it will fit any of them. They all have what I'd call "modest and conservative" dress. I've never so much as even considered trying it for fit on the one keris Bali sepuh in my care; it is conservatively and appropriately dressed. This sort of scabbard I might call analogous to the "Slaytanic Wehrmacht" T-shirt. I had it packed in my suitcase for my trip to Grandma's (I was somewhere between 14 and 16 at the time); my Mom rooted through my suitcase sometime before I boarded the plane and surreptitiously removed it. I've never forgiven her for her underhandedness and perfidy. If my Grandmother had not left this world, I'd wear a black shirt with blue tie, which I know would have met with her (and my Mother's) unhesitating approval.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Old blade, West Jawa/North Coast.

Dress is as Kai has stated.

This style did start as a dancer's dress. I have seen a couple that came into Australia before WWII, but the dress style began to proliferate with the tourism boom that began in 1970's.

Two or three reasons for this.

Bali keris have never been as prolific as Javanese keris, less people in Bali and the Balinese people themselves lost faith in the power of their ancestors to protect them after the puputans. There is a story in the keris trade in Jawa that Japanese took thousands of keris out of Bali during WWII and later.

However, there is a continuing need for dress keris and performers' keris in Bali, and that need has often been filled by Javanese keris that are still in Javanese dress. Still, today, you can see the Balinese cultural police who enforce the rules during Hari Nyepi and other important occasions wearing Javanese keris, not Balinese keris.

So this rather exuberant dress style we see here was developed strictly for performers. But the tourists liked it so much that after a kecak dance or whatever they wanted to buy the performers' keris. So this keris style then morphed into a Balinese souvenir.

But it did not start that way.

Personally, I would not change anything on this keris. It is an excellent example of its type. Blade is nothing special, just a blade to hold the dress together.

Apart from which, how do we get a nicely made, nicely fitted wrongko for this blade unless we send it or take it to Jawa? In the Time of Covid? I should be in Jawa right now, but with the situation there I don't reckon I'll be back for another two or three years, minimum.

Of its type, a nice keris.

Hi Alan. I completely agree with you that this re-dressing this keris doesn't make too much sense, especially if the sheaths made specifically to accommodate this blade or re-fitted well to accept it.
I do not doubt you story of the history of this dress and this is similar to what i have already heard. However, i still cannot recap ever seeing photographs of performers with this keris dress in hand (or sash). Do you have any photographs that establish this history? It seems more than likely that performers would be photographed, even as far back as early 19th century. So i would think there should be some photographic evidence to support this history.

[A. G. Maisey]

No David, in fact I cannot recall seeing dancers in Bali wearing keris with any style of dress.

I guess there are probably a lot of photos of dancers with a keris in hand, such as with your example, but what usually happens with the scabbard is that once the keris is drawn the scabbard gets dropped.

Unlike Jawa where there is plenty of opportunity to see people in traditional dress, and wearing keris, in Bali since the 1960's, there is virtually no public display of keris, and about the only times I've seen keris worn in Bali is at weddings, and by the cultural police during enforcement of rules & order at Hari Nyepi.

The Barong Dance is the one that people mostly associate with the keris, I've seen a few performances of this dance and usually the keris that are used by the dancers are handed out by a priest.

There is something else to remember too, and that is that although you might see a dancer wearing a keris before a performance, unless there is the need for a keris in the actual performance, and this is rare, he will not wear the keris while performing.

In the days of film ordinary people counted the photos they took, because each shot cost real money. Now, in the age of the digicam the tourists flock into Bali --- or they did, pre-Covid --- and many of these tourists go on a clickfest from the moment the plane starts its descent into Ngurah Rai airport.

They don't stop until they get back on the plane to go home. They literally see Bali through the viewfinder and go home with 20,000 images. A lot of these images get processed & put up on the internet.

How many pictures can you find on the net that show dancers in Bali wearing keris?

[Gavin Nugent]

Not from the net but from my film role, from the Barong dance.

Apart from Weddings noted, I've images of keris worn in funeral processions too.

Gavin

[David]

Nice photo Gavin. Most of the the photos i can find on the web of dancers with keris do not show the sarung. But from the hilts it is clear to see that they don't use the same figurative hilt that is most often paired with these "dancer" sheaths. They are usually bondalan type hilts. I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean that the sheaths used weren't these "dancer sheaths", but it certainly seems less likely.
Most often the examples i can find are from the Barong Dance, with keris out and pinned towards their wielders, but i have also found some others performances as well.

[Anthony G.]

these photo does send shiver down my spine. It looks painful.