Silver Keris Coteng with old restoration

[Roland_M]

Hello all,

Here is another member of my Keris family.
Recently acquired and after some hours of gently removing the thick black patina a high quality figure appeared.

I added one picture together with a beautiful Bali Keris to demonstrate, how small the Coteng is.

Parts of the figure and scabbard are obviously non original. The lower part of the figure and the silver on the mouth of the warangka (with a thick black patina) are result of a very old restoration. I believe, this is a European restoration from the 19th ct. or earlier and the maker had no idea and no model, so we probably see a very well made European interpretation of a Keris. This increases the historical value of this Keris for me.

The blade is another very exciting part of this Keris, it is obviously very old, the Ganja is lost. Despite the fact it is a quite thick blade, the opposite side of the Gandik is thin like paper and rusted through.
This blade furthermore have 3D waves, they are bended also in the z-direction, similar to a Keris Pejetan.
I have problems to count the number of luk on this Keris, I count 10 luk, which must be wrong. Which number is correct, 9 or 11? Or is it an extremely old blade with an even number of luk?

I would be happy, to see some comments, especially to my theory about the restoration and the blade itself.

Thank you for reading; I hope it was not too boring and many thanks for every comment.


Best wishes,
Roland