A very, very old Moro kris

[Ian]

This was a recent purchase online from a British auction house.

It is obviously an archaic Moro kris, with the blade probably being older than the fittings. A very notable feature of the blade is a central, twist core area that shows a lot of corrosion relative to the more peripheral parts of the blade. There are five luk on this half-waved, half-straight blade.

There is a clearly separate gangya. The "elephant trunk" area is interesting. The trunk extends well below the "mouth" and the area below the "mouth" shows a slightly protruding bulge. For me this raises the possibility that the blade was of Maranao manufacture. Below the "elephant trunk/mouth" area is a noticeable gap between it and the gangya—an unusual construct.

The grip is covered with heavy silver or white brass in segments separated by prominent rings. Between the rings is okir work carved into the silver. A single asang asang is present and made of a yellow metal that might be brass or suassa—gold, perhaps with some copper and silver alloyed with it (that would need to be tested). The pommel is of an old kakatua style, with a "beak" but no "crest." The crest may have been present long ago but lost due to damage (but repaired well). Or the pommel may have been made that way originally, as there are other extant examples of this style.

The scabbard is a mixture of woods. The sampir is a particularly nice piece of finely polished banati (bunti) wood, with fine grain showing chatoyance. The roughly rectangular shape of the sampir is consistent with a Maranao style. Below the sampir is a small horn spacer. The remainder of the scabbard is made from two pieces of spalted wood. Again the wood has been finely polished and is very hard. I suspect a type of teak. The toe is another piece of polished hardwood.

Three main clues suggest to me that this a very old Maranao kris: the hilt (style and okir work), scabbard (sampir), and the "elephant trunk/mouth" area of the blade.

As to just how old this one may be is not easy to answer. A fellow forumite and I are of the opinion that this sword is a pusaka that was handed down through generations. Both the hilt and scabbard are likely replacements (probably in the 19th C). The blade, however, is likely much older—perhaps 17th C or even back to the very early period of Spanish colonization. How such an early sword ended up in a British auction is hard to say, but it could well have passed through several hands after being brought back by a Spanish official or colonist from the Philippines.

Comments, ideas, criticisms are all welcome.
.

[Sajen]

Hi Ian,

A very nice kris! Congrats!

The sampir looks a little bit awkward in combination with the sampir, could it be a later replacement?

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Hi Detlef.

Yes, the sampir could be a later replacement and the horn spacer may have been used to fit the sampir more snugly. There is also evidence of an old band around the mid-scabbard that was glued at some time (but now lost).

[Battara]

Frankly it looks like an early Sulu blade with Indonesian sundang dress. The fittings are silver with tarnish (yellow first before they turn brown).

The okir and style of chasing fits more Indonesia to me. Now it is true that the small ring bands are not typical in style, they are more similar to Indonesian rings than Moro.

The sampir burl also fits with those of Indonesia.

I have seen blades traded from the adjacent regions with blades from one place with fitting from another.

Also the asana-asang is more in keeping with Indonesian ones, though some Moro ones come close to this form in Sulu.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Battara

Frankly it looks like an early Sulu blade with Indonesian sundang dress. The fittings are silver with tarnish (yellow first before they turn brown).

The okir and style of chasing fits more Indonesia to me. Now it is true that the small ring bands are not typical in style, they are more similar to Indonesian rings than Moro.

The sampir burl also fits with those of Indonesia.

I have seen blades traded from the adjacent regions with blades from one place with fitting from another.

Also the asana-asang is more in keeping with Indonesian ones, though some Moro ones come close to this form in Sulu.

Hello Jose,

I think you mean Malay instead of Indonesian?

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Thanks for all your comments so far.

I don't know whether early Malay kris differed from early Moro kris. I suspect they were fairly similar, as it has been postulated that the Filipino kris may have given rise to the Malay kris. Nor do I know how early Moro kris differed from early Brunei kris. I'm calling this one a Moro kris, but it could be Malay or Brunei in origin.

A central twist core flanked by hardened edges is typical of many early Moro kris that we have seen on these pages. The twist core could reflect a higher quality of sword, and a higher chance of it surviving to the present time, so I don't think we should be too carried away by the presence or absence of a twist core. I don't know how frequently twist core appears on Malay or Brunei kris, but I suspect the technique was not invented by Moro panday.

There is one feature that I mentioned earlier that is unusual on this sword, and that is the gap below the elephant trunk area and the adjacent gangya, as indicated by the arrow in this picture.

I have seen this before on very old Moro kris displayed in a Spanish Museum, but I am struggling to find the picture in our archives. I will post a copy of that picture when I find it again. My question to our experts is, have you seen this feature on Malay or Brunei kris, or any of their Indonesian keris relatives?

[David]

Originally Posted by Ian

As to just how old this one may be is not easy to answer. A fellow forumite and I are of the opinion that this sword is a pusaka that was handed down through generations. Both the hilt and scabbard are likely replacements (probably in the 19th C). The blade, however, is likely much older—perhaps 17th C or even back to the very early period of Spanish colonization. How such an early sword ended up in a British auction is hard to say, but it could well have passed through several hands after being brought back by a Spanish official or colonist from the Philippines.

I could be off base as the Moro kris is really only a secondary interest for me (in spite of the fact that it was a Moro kris that indeed started me on my current addiction), but i wonder if this kris is not just very old instead of "very, very old". I mean, yes, it is obviously an old kris in what we know as the "archaic" form, but when i look at the gangya i see this series of holes where on a kris from the 17th centry or older i would expect to see actual greneng. Of course, i have seen this before, but on later kris. Also extent of the 45 degree angle rise at the end of the gangya seems to me to be a later development. My thought would therefore be 18th century. Dress could be 19th or even early 20th C. Nice find Ian.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David

I could be off base as the Moro kris is really only a secondary interest for me (in spite of the fact that it was a Moro kris that indeed started me on my current addiction), but i wonder if this kris is not just very old instead of "very, very old". I mean, yes, it is obviously an old kris in what we know as the "archaic" form, but when i look at the gangya i see this series of holes where on a kris from the 17th centry or older i would expect to see actual greneng. Of course, i have seen this before, but on later kris. Also extent of the 45 degree angle rise at the end of the gangya seems to me to be a later development. My thought would therefore be 18th century. Dress could be 19th or even early 20th C. Nice find Ian.

Agree with David on this point. What I would consider as a very, very old kris is this one: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=kris

Regards,
Detlef

[Rafngard]

My one Archaic kris seems to have the same gap, though to a lessor extent.

Have fun,
Leif

[Ian]

Today I visited a veterinarian friend who has an X-ray machine. By cranking the machine up to 90kV and 0.5 mA I was able to get some very respectable views of the tang through the silver wrap on the handle. I first positioned the blade flat on the plate, 0º, and then took pictures at 30º, 45º, 60º and 90º of rotation from the horizontal plane. I expanded each digital image and referenced measurements to the diameter of the silver wrap at the same point. By measuring the width of the tang and of the silver wrap at several points along the tang in each of these views, I found that the tang diameter at each position was the same in all views [within the precision of my measurements (± 0.2 mm)]. This effectively excludes a flattened or square tang construction, leaving a tapering round tang as the remaining possibility.

Unfortunately, the image files were too large for my thumb drive, so I will have to go back next week and retrieve the images. I will post them here once they have been resized.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by David

... i wonder if this kris is not just very old instead of "very, very old". I mean, yes, it is obviously an old kris in what we know as the "archaic" form, but when i look at the gangya i see this series of holes where on a kris from the 17th centry or older i would expect to see actual greneng. Of course, i have seen this before, but on later kris. Also extent of the 45 degree angle rise at the end of the gangya seems to me to be a later development. My thought would therefore be 18th century. Dress could be 19th or even early 20th C. Nice find Ian.

David, the issue of greneng, or the absence of such, is an interesting one. The example shown here by Lief has some greneng, still visible but seriously worn down. Detlef's example similarly shows almost no definable greneng. So perhaps these ancient kris had greneng to some extent that simply got worn down with time. And the Java keris in Moro dress referenced by Detlef appears never to have had greneng.

The point you raise about the drilled holes is a good one. The holes look fairly well defined, and show little effects of corrosion. In fact, when I X-rayed the area those holes looked very clean and circular--"punched out." For this reason, I think they are probably a much later addition.

Lastly, the uptilted end of the gangya is seen on the very old Bugis keris example that I have referenced, suggesting that this style of gangya could have been copied from the Bugis at an early time in the development of the Moro kris.

[David]

Originally Posted by Ian

David, the issue of greneng, or the absence of such, is an interesting one. The example shown here by Lief has some greneng, still visible but seriously worn down. Detlef's example similarly shows almost no definable greneng. So perhaps these ancient kris had greneng to some extent that simply got worn down with time. And the Java keris in Moro dress referenced by Detlef appears never to have had greneng.


The point you raise about the drilled holes is a good one. The holes look fairly well defined, and show little effects of corrosion. In fact, when I X-rayed the area those holes looked very clean and circular--"punched out." For this reason, I think they are probably a much later addition.


Lastly, the uptilted end of the gangya is seen on the very old Bugis keris example that I have referenced, suggesting that this style of gangya could have been copied from the Bugis at an early time in the development of the Moro kris.

We will have to agree to disagree here Ian. I believe the oldest Moro blades would display "greneng" as all these other examples presented here do show. Detlef's is the exception, but it is not a Moro blade. I can see nothing that leads me to belief the holes in your kris were added at a later date. The holes and the contoured bumps along the edge around them look original to the blade to my eyes. Again, i have seen these on later Moro kris, though i don't know exactly where along the timeline this style began. To me it seems like something that was added to simulate greneng a bit further down the timeline when the concept of greneng was further from its source in Java and less understood by Moro kris smiths. It seems to me that on the earliest of archaic Moro keris we still see greneng as it was originally intended in Java that still maintains the form of ron dha if not the full symbolic intent. That symbolic intent even changed in Java as the keris became a Islamic blade rather than a Hindu one. Over time the style of "greneng" on Moro kris became more varied and divorced from the original symbolic intent of the form. I still think that while indeed an old kris, yours is not part of the oldest group of archaic kris that would have maintained more of the original Indonesian form that it was developed from.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David

We will have to agree to disagree here Ian. I believe the oldest Moro blades would display "greneng" as all these other examples presented here do show. Detlef's is the exception, but it is not a Moro blade.

I also think/believe that early Moro blades show greneng.
I think you mean the kris/keris with the broken scabbard, it's not mine, it's in the possession from Michael Marlow. But I believe that this blade had once greneng, it's simply very worn, see the pic.

Regards,
Detlef

[Rafngard]

Originally Posted by Sajen

I think you mean the kris/keris with the broken scabbard, it's not mine, it's in the possession from Michael Marlow. But I believe that this blade had once greneng, it's simply very worn, see the pic.

I'm fairly certain I handled that blade the last time I went to Sweden, in May of 2022. It's an odd one so it sticks in my head.

In my uneducated hands the blade definitely felt very Javanese and also very old and warn. I think Detlef is probably right that it probably once had a greneng.

Have fun,
Leif

[Ian]

David and Detlef,

You are both much more knowledgeable about keris than I am. Thank you for your thoughts. However, neither of you commented on the presence of a round tang versus a flat or squared tang. In other discussions here, the presence of a round tang was thought to indicate an early form of kris. It has been suggested that the move to a flat tang was to avoid the twisting of the hilt in the hand during use, and that the asang asang were applied for the same reason.

Detlef, do you know if your old kris has a round tang or how long the tang is? IIRC, the tang has become shorter over time, and early tangs were often quite long in the hilt.