Keris Malela Unduk Unduk

[Gustav]

Dear All,

there are some pictures of beautiful Keris Malela from Malay Peninsula, especially in old UBB Forum, yet none of older Keris Unduk Unduk. The post of Dave Henkel in this old thread

http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001573.html

is the only information available to me about this quite fancy form of Keris. As mentioned in that thread, old pre-WWII examples are very rare, during the last years I have seen only one old Keris Unduk Unduk for sale in Europe.

This one is only of average quality, yet it could be pre-WWII indeed. Like almost all new ones, the other old Keris Unduk Unduk I have seen had Sogokan going until the tip of blade - the maker of my blade apparently didn't want to take the risk, as he was clearly struggling with the shape of Luk (they are not so well done one should expect on a Keris Malela coming from Terengganu) and the carving of Ricikan. The pierced-through parts of Greneng and Jenggot (are they perhaps symbolising foam of sea ?) are quite well done - on many contemporary examples they look somewhat awkward.

The sheath, Pipit Teleng hilt and Pendokok are all Terengganu. Interesting to note, this form of Pendokok still has exactly eight petals, referring to lotus as a seet of a deity.

[Gustav]

More pics:

[Gustav]

Here are the picture and two close-up extracts of the only old Keris Unduk-Unduk I have seen so far.

[Sajen]

Hello Gustav,

great keris also when it is maybe not very old, thank you very much for sharing.

Regards,
Detlef

[Gustav]

Found one more - acquired 1928, hilt seems to be Akar Bahar. Blade could be Gonjo Iras, which possibly means a lot of dificulties carving Sraweyan and Blumbangan.

[Gavin Nugent]

Just doing a little light reading....I seemed to have missed this last year Gustav, thank you for sharing, this outs to rest the question of the form being new or old, referring to claims but some collectors that this is only a later 20th century design...

Gavin