An interesting Bali keris for sharing

[Gustav]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hello David,

I was the second highest bidder on this keris. It was rather cheap but sadly I am not able to bid higher for the moment. And yes, I guess that the cross piece is from ivory, at least I don't see any bubble you can see by some fake hilts from some sort of plastic we all have seen before and the overall condition and materials let me think that all is old and original, late 19th to early 20th century would be my guess. Sadly most of the gold wash is gone.
And yes, this keris needs some TLC.

Regards,
Detlef

Detlef,

I doubt such carvings in th crosspiece were done until WWII, but when they were done, sometimes on old ivory crosspieces. I don't particularly like this kind of things, but that goes together with how "traditional" art developed in Bali.

If we compare blades of this Keris and David's, I would say, David's is easily four, five times more worth.