New Keris for info

[A. G. Maisey]

Several things.

Pamor is koro welang tambal. This is a popular pamor in Jawa and Madura.

The greneng appears to be more Javanese than anything else.

Keris panjang were made in Central Jawa after, probably, 1850, and certainly in the PBX era. Some of these keris did carry pamor, but I have never seen nor heard of a complex pamor miring in one of these Javanese keris panjang.

Pamor koro welang is a complex pamor miring.

I have both owned and seen quite a few keris panjang, both with and without pamor, in various styles of dress. These styles include several Javanese styles of dress and Bugis/Peninsula styles of dress. I have never seen a keris panjang in Balinese dress.

There is a distinct tendency amongst present day collectors to want blades that are identifiable as coming from a particular geographic location to be dressed in wrongko and hilt from that location. Taken as a guiding principle this could possibly be acceptable. But in the real world it ignores the way things truly are in keris bearing societies.

For many & various reasons keris blades move around the entire keris bearing world, and indeed, far beyond the keris bearing world. Javanese blades were exported all over S.E. Asia, and as far afield as Sri Lanka, as far back as the 15th century.

We can routinely expect to find keris blades from one area in old keris dress that is associated with another area. In fact, when we move away from centers of population, and areas that were under the influence of one royal house or another, we will find genuine, old, highly regarded keris in a mixture of dress that the previous owners have used, and that reflects the changing fortunes or associations of the previous owners, rather than any geographical influences. For a broadly based collection, perhaps the very best criterion is one of quality.