A feast for the eyes.

[DaveS]

Michael: The kris looks to me to have been made in sulu, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was from N. Borneo given the close proximity to the sulu island chain.

[DaveS]

Jose: In the pictures i sent to you last year, there was one of a Maranau kris with an octagonal silver grip with gold bands and a horn jungayyan handle but from what i can remember the okir was almost the same as on this sulu kris. I wonder if the closeness of the two groups might account for this similarity, as i have never really seen much difference in the okir decoration. Maybe i just never paid that much attention............Dave.

[Battara]

Originally Posted by DaveS

Jose: In the pictures i sent to you last year, there was one of a Maranau kris with an octagonal silver grip with gold bands and a horn jungayyan handle but from what i can remember the okir was almost the same as on this sulu kris. I wonder if the closeness of the two groups might account for this similarity, as i have never really seen much difference in the okir decoration. Maybe i just never paid that much attention............Dave.

Well geographically speaking the 2 groups are not that close. The Maranao and Maguindanao are closer and do great chasing work. However, their form of okir is different than that of the Sulu group. I am basing my observations on the style of okir used which is more in line with the Sulu group. There is an example of a Sulu kris in Cato that has a nearly identical motif on the silver bands (although I am not in what my wife calls the library/armoury to get the page number).

[VVV]

Originally Posted by DaveS

Michael: The kris looks to me to have been made in sulu, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was from N. Borneo given the close proximity to the sulu island chain.

Dave,

I don't doubt that the blade is Sulu. It was the specific "dress" with the hilt variation that I speculated could come from Sabah based on the resembling kris I have seen in other collections.

Michael