Alan plays gotcha!
I wasn't biting though
Both are very interesting keris neither of which fit the classic Pattani form.
The hilt of A does recall to mind hilts which I have seen in the collection of Nik Rashidin although horn is not very common as a hilt material in Pattani pieces or Peninsular pieces in general. They do happen though.
The blades, particularly that of B are also well within the realm of what is found in Pattani and Kelantan. In fact had I hazarded a guess I would have said B was a Kelantan blade but as I have already noted in my posts on Hanggoye's recent addition, the two run together in the middle.
There is a keris tajong in Nik Din's collection that is provenanced to the Raja of Jalor, a small fiefdom in Pattani which has a blade that is so totally a-typical of Northeastern Peninsular keris that most people there think it was a trade blade from Java. That said its so totally off Javanese standards and is materially much closer to Pattani that I reckon it is a Pattani blade made as a copy of a Javanese.
There's another keris type which everyone in Pattani and Kelantan tells me is a Keris Riau and is materially and stylistically approximate of what a Riau keris should look like. Yet every example of this type which I have seen came from Pattani and all have elements of Pattani style and material which indicate local manufacture. Again the logical guess is, a Pattani attempt to mimic a foreign style.
I've seen dozens of such examples in my time. Kai Wee has a keris sourced in Riau with the "classic" Terengganu pipit teleng hilt. I saw another on a Minang keris that was clearly a local attempt to copy the Terengganu form. It wasn't quite "right" in material and form but was clearly an attempt to copy. Tengku Ibrahim of Terengganu has a Jawa demam hilt in typical Terengganu form carved very intricately and convincingly with classic Palembang decorative carving. Another example of this type turned up on Oriental Arms not too long ago. Both had typical Terengganu blades and sheaths. A Terengganu carver copying Palembang motifs? A Palembang migrant working for a Terengganu clientel? Anybody's guess.
The point of all this is that we mustn't get so caught up in trying to classify kerises according to rigid formula. As I have pointed out in past years these keris were not produced in a bubble. The craftsmen (and their clients) were aware of the world outside, encountered that world on a daily basis and often drew inspiration from that world. Even today this process remains enshrined in the local traditions. As I pointed out above, folks in Kelantan and Pattani still call that Riau keris copy a "keris Riau" in this particular case they seem to have forgotten that it was made locally. I've also seen more than a few keris up there with Bugis style sheaths which the locals call "sampir Bugis". In this particular case they realise though that this is a local absorbtion of the Bugis style.
At the end of the day, there are archetypes but the craftsmen were and are stilll under no compunction to stick those local types. Understanding provenance is important but not the end all be all of keris collecting. Anyway, collecting these things wouldn't be half as fun if it was easy.
