Two Sumatra kerises
 

Hi all,

Just to share a couple of my kerises. First one is a Straits Bugis keris with a simple sepokal blade. The blade is thin, but quite strong. Flexes sturdily. Edge is rather worn off. Interesting thing is the pamor, which almost looks like the reflective 3D type (doesn't come up well in the photos). Blade has a nice incense smell. I'm storing the blade in plastic after cleaning to minimize the need to oil it (and in the process remove the nice incense smell. Hilt is a superb example). Strong nose, plump but sure form.

Next up is a nice Sumatran keris, possibly from some where near Indragiri (?? really not sure). The main reason why I acquired it was the silver pendok. It is made by a Chinese silversmith. If you notice the way the pendok was fitted to the sampir, the joint is rather too stiff and parallel to the bottom of the pendok, showing that the silversmith doesn't really get the keris aesthetics. The other interesting thing is that if you count the number of flowers on the pendok, it numbers eight. An auspicious number for the Chinese, but hardly what we associate with keris/Malay preference for odd numbers. This keris is an example of cross-cultural mixes that went into the keris, and the larger cultural environment in the archipelago.

Very nice

Thanks for sharing,

I especially love the second one with the panjang shape and beautiful engraving :)

Hello Kai Wee,

like usual when you post pieces from your collection: very very nice. The pendok of the second keris remind me of the pendok of a keris from my collection where I suppose that it is chinese work as well.
Thank you very much for sharing this both keris with us.

Regards,

Detlef

Hi Sajen,

The pendok on your keris does look similar in motifs, but I can't tell for sure that it is Chinese work as well. In fact, for my keris, I could make that conclusion because of the silversmith maker's mark, which were in Chinese characters. :)

The keris is actually an anak alang, not a panjang. :)

I think it's still nice :D

but I meant to say: that I found the shape of the blade looks similar
to a panjang-blade?

Bleuerf,


Thank you for sharing !
I like the first blade , simple form but with a great appereance because
of the pamor, realy nice !