old keris for comments

[JamesKelly]

Long a gun collector, I bought my first keris last year. Wonderful information from this group & I am very aware of my complete ignorance of this area. Yes, I am told that it is the blade, not the mountings, that matters in a keris, still I just could not pass up this carving at the last Michigan show.

The story that came with it was "somebody's Uncle brought it back from the Philippines after WWII"

[Rick]

Looks like a fairly decent Bali blade in the archetypical 'Balinese Tourist Dress' .
The carving though is 'quick and dirty' for Balinese work .

[David]

Hi James. Do you want the good news or the bad first?
OK, the bad first then. Frankly, the part you just could not pass up on this keris is probably the worst part of your ensemble. This type of dress is often associated with the infamous "Bali tourist keris", a beast which isn't truly a keris at all as it is made from a cutout blank (not pattern welded) and has pamor pattern lines painted onto it. The good news is that your blade is not one of these tourist blades. Yours looks genuine and it appears to have some age. Unfortunately it appears that at some time well after this keris was forged someone got it in there head that it would be more valuable if it had more features (ricikan) and added what are called sogokan, the two grooves on each side at the base of the blade that look like blood grooves. More unfortunately, they did a really poor job of it as well and it kind of ruins the blade for me. I am alway confused as to why people can't just leave well enough alone and not attempt to modify these things after the fact. While this was never a masterful blade it was at least an honest one before the alteration.
As wood carvings go, for this part of the world this dress is rather mediocre (though i have seen worse) and are turned out rather quickly. This may have come from somebody's Uncle who had been in the Philippines, but the keris is Balinese and an Indonesian form, not like the Moro kris swords of the Philippines. It certainly came here "after WWII", but also just as certainly it was waaaaay after WWII. This style of dress didn't really develop until much later, maybe the 1960s at the earliest and i would judge this dress later than that. We do regularly see old blades (instead of the tourist "keris like objects") dressed in this style as dealers find old blades w/o sheaths and need to dress them cheaply for sale.
I realize that was probably not what you were hoping to hear, but if you didn't spend too much on this you could have done much worse for your first keris. Many of us have.

[Rick]

Good point about the added features to the blade .
I missed that being, I guess, distracted by the dress myself or not .. .

I encourage James to persevere; better finds lay uncharted yet .
Sometimes less is more .

[JamesKelly]

Thank you both.

Just like with antique guns, one must, I believe, personally handle and examine many of these objects, along with reading what is available, before being able to make a decent purchase.

I didn't spend much on this one & can probably get the $ back. It is a relatively inexpensive step in my education.

Hmmm. . . been doing this since 1951 with old muskets . . . wonder if I've time to learn catch-up with blades? Well, it keeps the synapses firing.

By the way, collectors/dealers destroy many an old firearm with much the same mentality as used on this keris blade. Got a fine old model 1816 Springfield musket dated 1817 at the same show, would be even finer if some genius hadn't removed that ugly old prickly raised walnut grain with his fine steel wool. Even respected dealers will scrape off patina so one may more readily read the serial number.

Doubt that I will ever be a smart keris collector.
Also doubt that I can leave them alone now.

[A. G. Maisey]

Very often when we find a feature added to a keris at some time after its manufacture, we form the opinion that this has been done to increase its saleability. In many cases this is true, but there are numerous cases where it is not true, or may not be true.

In the case of James' keris it is my opinion that it is extremely unlikely that the sogokan were added for any commercial reason, but rather because of religious belief.

The symbolism attached to the sogokan is that it is an icon of Siwa (Shiva). It is an upwards pointing triangle that first appeared in the early keris (Keris Buda) when Jawa was still dominated by the Hindu-Buddhist faith known as Jawa-Hindu. After the Jawa-Hindu faith was replaced by Islam, this faith was taken to Bali, along with the Javanese people who migrated to Bali during the years prior to the collapse of Majapahit, and especially towards the end of the Majapahit era. In Bali the old religion of Jawa evolved into the Bali-Hindu faith.

In fact, pre-Islamic Jawa-Bali probably should be viewed as a nexus, rather than as two separate entities, so probably it is incorrect of me to say that the faith was taken to Bali, rather it very probably formed a part of Balinese culture and society from around the time of its appearance in Jawa, but it remained alive and vibrant in Bali, after it was replaced in Jawa by Islam.

The features that we find in a keris are not just haphazard curlicues that have been added for ornamentation or personal adornment, these features are a language of symbols that must be read according to the religious and societal conditions that prevailed in Jawa when they began to appear in the blades of early keris. The upwards pointing triangle is one such symbol, and it symbolises Siwa.

I am of the opinion that one of the previous owners of James' keris carved these rudimentary sogokan into this blade as a symbol of Siwa. It is a Balinese blade, it is a blade with some age. Until quite recently it seems probable that knowledge of the ancient symbolism locked into the keris blade was understood by some Balinese people. I believe that a previous owner of James' keris was one of these people.

[David]

Thanks Alan, that's a very viable alternative. For what ever reason though i do wish that it had been added with more craft, though if your theory is correct i am sure that the symbolism of the addition would probably trump art.

[Rick]

The logic seems to be there Alan; these details are likely not what would strike a tourist at first inspection .

The dress and pamor however, would .

[A. G. Maisey]

As the keris developed into an art form, the sogokan also developed as art, but in the very early representation of the sogokan it is no more than a simple rudimentary triangle. You can still see this later weapons, such as tombak and pedang from periods as late the 18th-19th centuries. If an owner, rather than an artisan added the sogokan, as I believe is the case with this keris, he would simply add the symbol of Siwa, he would not necessarily strive for artistic effect.

Often we tend to overlook the fact that in both Balinese and Javanese keris, the keris is a living entity, and as with all living things it can alter over time. If we find a naga, or a singo barong that has the appearance of having been added to the blade after its completion, this is not necessarily an attempt to increase commercial value, but could be a reflection of a change in status, or in esoteric belief of a previous owner.

Similarly with kinatah work, there is the historic example of Sultan Agung honouring his commanders with entitlement to various kinatah motifs after the Pati conflict. Gonjos can come and go, for more reasons than one.

When a keris has been made, the form does not always stop exactly right there at that point.

If we see a keris that looks as if it might have been altered we need to appraise it objectively, not just automatically assume that the alteration is the work of some shonky little twister trying to screw more money out of a buyer.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

As the keris developed into an art form, the sogokan also developed as art, but in the very early representation of the sogokan it is no more than a simple rudimentary triangle. You can still see this later weapons, such as tombak and pedang from periods as late the 18th-19th centuries. If an owner, rather than an artisan added the sogokan, as I believe is the case with this keris, he would simply add the symbol of Siwa, he would not necessarily strive for artistic effect.

Often we tend to overlook the fact that in both Balinese and Javanese keris, the keris is a living entity, and as with all living things it can alter over time. If we find a naga, or a singo barong that has the appearance of having been added to the blade after its completion, this is not necessarily an attempt to increase commercial value, but could be a reflection of a change in status, or in esoteric belief of a previous owner.

Similarly with kinatah work, there is the historic example of Sultan Agung honouring his commanders with entitlement to various kinatah motifs after the Pati conflict. Gonjos can come and go, for more reasons than one.

When a keris has been made, the form does not always stop exactly right there at that point.

If we see a keris that looks as if it might have been altered we need to appraise it objectively, not just automatically assume that the alteration is the work of some shonky little twister trying to screw more money out of a buyer.

Good points, all, Alan. And i'm sure that James is happy to read them.
One other point about this keris that might please James is that it is a somewhat rare one due to it's relatively high wave count. 15 luk blades are not all that common AFAIK.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, true David, 15 is in fact outside the normal parameters.

That, plus the way in which some of the features have been carved might indicate that we're looking at Bali-Lombok.

[JamesKelly]

Gentlemen, thank you again. I do not know how to count numbers of luk. Bali-Lombok? Another new term!

Speaking as a newbie (with some knowledge of metals and 19th century muskets) I assume the two grooves which symbolize Siwa are those about 2-3/8 to 3" (600 - 760 mm) long? The longer one being on the side away from the, ahhh . . . elephant's nose, and rusty appearing in the bottom.
The blade appears to have had some rust at one time. This looks to have been mechanically removed, most of the blade polished and sharpened, leaving some fine pitting. Those two grooves were cut, and then the metal was repatinated. I assume with arsenic and acid. Nevertheless the pattern in the steel goes down into the grooves, and the chemical finish was applied after the grooves were cut.

Sitting on the deck with Dog, idly paring my thumbnail I realize this religious-object-which-is-not-a-weapon sure has a sharp edge. One could well pare more than a thumbnail should one's mind wander.
I became interested in blades in general, looking for something to stimulate this aged mind more than gun collecting. Well, each time Mr. Maisey comes forth I realize I sure have found it.

It reminds me of one college math course when our professor tried to get us to visualize a 4-dimensional object.
Yeah.
That is what all this is to me, coming from a simpler world of Old-Things-That-Go-Bang.

Addicting.

And at this point I can still enjoy the carving on handle and sheath. In the USA, in some other context, this would be regarded as skilled work. Never mind that it took just ten minutes under a palm tree, it is better than I can do.

[A. G. Maisey]

James, in recent years there has been a tendency for some people to claim that the keris is not, and in fact never has been a weapon, in spite of the more than ample evidence to the contrary.

I am not one of those people. Nor are any of the truly knowledgeable keris people whom I know in Jawa. Nor were the Balinese people of pre-puputan days.

The keris is a weapon, but it is unique amongst functional weapons in that it has characteristics that make it more than a weapon.

We may view it as a work of art, as a store of wealth, as a status marker, as a talisman, as a personal shrine, as a link between the members of a kin group, as a link between the Seen and Unseen Worlds, or we may view it as weapon. It all depends upon personal orientation.