[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks for that Gustav.
Yes, Go Tik Swan Penembahan Hardjonagoro (Alm.) did have a keris with carved blade faces, it had earlier belonged to Pangeran Hadiwidjojo (Alm.), but it was nothing at all like Athanase's keris, it was a bethok.

I believe the blade ornamentation had been interpreted as something taken from the Arjunowiwoho. I also believe it was Panembahan Hardjonagoro (Alm.) himself who named this keris K.K. Arjunowiwoho, and in his opinion it was Tangguh Kediri.

I was unaware that this keris had any link to Erlangga, I also did not know that it was a particularly famous keris. Panembahan Hardjonegoro was very, very restrained when it came to permitting people to see or handle his kerises.

However, if we can accept that by classifying a keris as Tangguh Kediri, we have established that the keris in question was actually made in the Kingdom of Kediri, then there is great difficulty in linking Erlangga to K.K. Arjunowiwoho, because Erlangga was the ruler of Kahuripan, which preceded Kediri. But on the other hand, Arjuno Wiwoho was composed by Mpu Kanwa at the direction of Erlangga.

All these associations seem just a wee bit flimsy to me.

So K.K. Arjunowiwoho really does not share any great similarity with Athanases's keris, but perhaps it may be somewhat similar to the Knaud Keris.

The Steinmann keris seems to be quite similar to Athanase's keris, but the keris in the Met, (link post 10) is more than a little difficult to link to Athanase's keris.

The keris in van der Hoop is similar in form to Athanase's keris, and may well be able to be classified as of the same or a related origin.

I cannot see the ornamentation of Athanase's keris well enough to be able compare it with the Steinmann keris, nor with the van der Hoop keris, and I've forgotten exactly what the ornamentation on K.K. Arjunowiwoho looked like. I only saw it once, very briefly.

This particular type of keris is not rare. I've owned several myself, not particularly good or old ones, and sold long ago. They were still being made in the 19th and early twentieth century; they were still being made after 1946; they are still being made today.

This type of blade ornamentation is not limited to only keris, it also occurs on tombaks and pedangs, in the Musium Radyo Pustoko in Solo there is even a peculiar little knife that has a blade engraved with designs.

Athanase's keris is a nice keris, it does have some age, but for myself, that's about as far as I'm prepared to go. From photos, and in the physical absence of all the kerises mentioned, I really cannot draw any defensible constructs of similarity, apart from what I have already mentioned, and what I regard as similarity there is based on form only.

Note:- The Arjunowiwoho (or Arjunawiwaha) was written by Mpu Kanwa under the direction of Sri Maharaja Rakai Halu Sri Dharmawangsa Airlangga Anantawikramottunggadewa, popularly known as Erlangga, the ruler of Kahuripan from about 1010 to about 1043. It is a Kekawin that tells the story of one of the Pandhawas, Arjuno, who fights for the Gods against the demon king Niwatakawaca.

The photo is of the van der Hoop keris, plus a couple of other similarly ornamented blades.