Proper pictures of keris, kris and other SEA archipelago daggers at the ACM
 

Took these without flash, under dim light conditions. I tried my best to hold the camera steady. :)

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Thanks for the effort! It's not easy to capture these photos under low light, reflection and other 'noises'. ;)

Hello Alam,

thank you very much for this pictures taken under this circumstances! Where have been this exhibition? Very nice blades are shown, wow!!

Regards,

Detlef

No problems, Shahrial. Glad to share these, and to help promote the ACM a bit. :)

Hi Detlef, these kerises are part of the permanent exhibits at the the Singapore Asian Civilisations Museum. :) I encourage you to visit the museum if you are in Singapore. Put aside a full day for the museum! there are many other good artefacts on exhition, and they are well curated with proper write-ups explaining what you are seeing. :)

Thank you Alam, this is now on my to-do-list when I am next time in Singapore!

Regards,

Detlef

Stealth needed?
 

Hi Blu,

The pictures got me wondering how you managed to pull it off. The staff gave me a stern look when I tried to snap pictures of 'Si Ginje' and the golden crown of Siak during the 'Sumatra - Isle of Gold' exhibition.

During that exhibition, photo-taking was prohibited in that exhibition hall. Signages were posted before entry into the gallery and many witihin it. Guards were roving around. It was difficult to take photos.. I went there twice. Once with BluErf and another occasion with Ganjawulung.

The pictures posted here are the ones on permanent display in another hall. Photo-taking is allowed but no flash photography elsewhere in the museum. :)

Thanks for this look-see Kai Wee. You did a fine job under the circumstances. Quite a few real beauties here. In the future i would suggest that it would be best to post only the kerns on this forum and start a separate thread for the other weapons in the general forum. That will not only keep our forum specific, but will also open these to viewing by other forum members who rarely visit this side of the fence. :)

As curator of the display I suppose I should comment at least a bit on these...

...the "Moro" pieces in the first few photos were collected in 1902 by a Mr. N.B. Denys. We have no further info on who he was but presumably was a colonial civil servant of sorts. Most were bought in Brunei.

The Bugis keris with the lawe setukel pamor is one of my all time favorite kerises. The batang of the sheath is ever so subtly waisted and the swoop of the sampir is divine.

The burung serindit piece was carved by Tengku Ismail - one of the most attention to detail oriented carvers of all time. It is a masterpiece - Nik Din once told me Ku 'Smail had over 4000 tools in his workshop...talk about detail oriented.

The tajong is one of the best of Nik Din's works...its the whole package from micro to macro - a genuine masterpiece.

The badik Makara is IMO Nik Rashidee's single best work. We're very proud to have it on display.

The Pattani Singabarong is ultra-rare and a singular piece. I've seen others but I've never seen better.

The two "Palembang" pieces are said to have been the property of Pangeran Said Ali, I've found enough info to be sure that he was a historic figure from the mid-19th century from Siak and that he did visit Singapore regularly in the '40s and 50s but I have yet to unearth the original records of how the pieces entered into the collection...btw I think the pendokok of the Jawa Demam hilted example was added later by one of my early predecessors as such examples are usually Peninsular.

Also, I undertand your frustration at the light levels in the galleries but because there are also textiles on display in this gallery we have to be careful where and how much light we use in the displays. Hope you all understand...

Permanent Display
 

Wonderful stuff, hope I'll get the chance to snap a few of these kerises on my next visit (not easy to linger when you have a wife hell bent on dragging you back to Orchard Road and a four year old in tow).

Dave,

I wonder if the Sumatra exhibition catalogue is still available? I have a copy, though a friend told me it was sold out by the time he visited the ACM.

My all-time favourite is the grand gold keris of the Johor-Riau-Lingga Sultanate, together with the Cogan. I wonder if the scions of that family (which I know have taken residence in Singapore) managed to catch a glimpse of their fabulous heirloom.

Dave, thanks for filling in some details on these awesome pieces. :)

Wow, incredible krises and barungs! The jawi on the fuller gives me the goosebumps... I notice the nicks on one of the barung's edge as well

Hi David,

Ok, I'll do that for future posts. :)