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.
.