Can you help …..?

[Amuk Murugul]

Hullo everybody!

I need help in locating a kris/keris with fretwork similar to that shown in the picture attached. Please look at it carefully if you think you may be able to help.

Thank you.

Best,

[Battara]

Looks Balinese to me.

[Gustav]

It is from a time period when Javanese and Balinese was very close.

[A. G. Maisey]

This greneng does not fit within the major recognised Javanese greneng forms of any period.

It is very probably the work of a maker who was not influenced by a major keris classification.

It might be of some assistance to see a well executed photograph of the entire keris.

[Amuk Murugul]

Hullo gentlemen,

Thank you for your replies.

Battara: You may be correct, but I haven’t seen it on any Balinese/Lombok keris.

Gustav: You may generally be confirming my suspicions.

Alan: I agree with you to a certain extent.
To date, I have seen several kerises with it (both straight and eloek blades). All were enviably well-executed.(Hence my interest in owning one for further investigation.)
Please accept my sincere apologies; the above picture was the only one allowed me at the time.

Once again, thank you all.

Best,

[A. G. Maisey]

Could I request a clarification of what you mean by "some extent"?

Reason being, that when I could not place this greneng from my own memory, I then spent quite a bit of time trying to find a match in books & other published works, but I could not locate a match.

This greneng does display elements of other greneng forms that are pretty much standardised forms, but none of these are a match for the posted photo.

One of the major indicators for a Javanese keris classification (tangguh) is the rondha, & sometimes the complete greneng, if this greneng under discussion does not fit within the matrix then we might need to start thinking along somewhat different lines.

It is regrettable that you were not permitted the opportunity to produce a reasonably clear photograph, I really cannot see important details very well at all on the photo posted. I did massage this photo through Photoshop, but it is such a small image that it pixelated and became even harder to read.

[Ian]

Perhaps this view may be a bit more helpful. It is markedly pixelated by one can now see the line of separation between the ganja and the rest of the blade.

[Ian]

Because this one deals with the keris, I'm transferring it to the Keris Fprum.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Ian, that's better than I was able to get, & that line of separation was one of the things i was looking for. However, I really would need a full length photo to have any chance of making any sort of possibly useful comment.

[Gustav]

Well, this is Greneng of a Keris, which was mentioned in an inventory for the first time in 1607. We most likely are looking at a 16th cent. Keris.

Todays "experts", seeing such blade, yell in one voice "Banten!". Yesterdays experts yelled "Bali".

[A. G. Maisey]

To a degree I do agree with you Gustav, there are elements of similarity in the greneng posted & in Jensen's photos of keris attributed to Banten, in fact, Jensen was the reference I looked at after Haryoguritno, but the variations in execution do not permit me to name this posted greneng as Banten.

I might be wrong, or at least, too demanding, but for me, this posted greneng is still outside the Banten matrix.

Perhaps in the hand, it might be more convincing.

[Gustav]

It is not featured in Jensens book, I guess it is in Krisdisk, chapter Bali, I cannot check at the moment. Here an even smaller picture of the entire Keris.