Help identify this kris
 

Attachment 213237

Attachment 213238

Could someone please give me some information about this kris? I inherited it from my Dad. He lived in Solo, but also travelled to Solo several times.
Thank you.

Your dad lived in Solo, but this keris is from Bali. The sheath is an old form of what many collectors have come to call "dance" sheaths. These are generally associated with Balinese tourist keris which often have blades that are made from a piece of sheet steel and ornamented with fake pamor patterns that are batiked onto the surface of the blades. But your keris appears to be a real pattern welded blade. Previous to making fake keris for souvenir keris, old worn out blades were sometimes used. Tourists wanted to take home keris they saw used in the Barong dances so people dancers might provide ones they no longer wanted. Occasionally though, you will find a fairly nice old keris in this form of dress because a bare blade needed a home and this was what was available at the time and on the budget.
We could probably tell you more about your keris and which of the above options your keris might be, however you left a good and rather important portion of the blade still covered by the top sheath of the scabbard. If it is stuck that way that is not the way it is supposed to be and you should gently try to remove the blade from this top part of the sheath. Once we can see the base of the blade more information can be gleaned.

I think this is a pretty early keris of its type, I mean the dress, the blade is of course an older one, but as David has said:- we cannot see what we need to see.

I used to have a very similar sheath to this with a decent old Bali blade in it that i have since passed on. The motifs carved on this one are pretty much exactly the same, right down to the vegetal patterns on the stem as well as the checkerboard pattern at the toe. I have an image of the full sarong somewhere to show just how similar these are, but i can't seem to find it at the moment.

Yep, nice old Bali Blade.

Worth preservation.


It would be tempting to put this blade into authentic Bali dress, but in the Time of Covid, that is a pretty big ask.

Here is another photo of this keris.