Little keris for comment and a few question

Sajen · 11th May 2024, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Yes Detlef, I believe most people would call it a patrem.

However, strictly speaking, a keris patrem is a keris specifically for a woman.

We need to remember that in olden times, when a keris was made for a man, the length & some other features of the keris were made specifically for the man.

There were some very small men in Jawa, & this applies until now. I remember that during the 1970's I could walk into a crowd of people, say, somewhere like a market, and look over the heads of the vast bulk of people in that crowd. I stand 5'8" (1.727m) tall.

Re the joint.

A similar joint to this is often used in fixing a buntut to the tip of a gandar. A good m'ranggi can produce just about anything that the occasion demands. If the owner of the keris wanted to preserve as much of the old scabbard as possible, the m'ranggi probably decided to make the joint in this form, he might never have made this form previously.

Hello Alan,

It was my guess that this unusual joint could be an old repair of a former restoration.
And yes, the effect that you can look as a bule over the heads of the vast bulk of people when I am in Indonesia is known to me.

Regards,
Detlef