BANJARMASIN KERIS, unfortunately not mine

[Jean]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Hello Jean,
There is not very much information around, but as far as I know the blades are always import blades. So there is not a "Banjarmasin" style of blades.

So I call it Banjarmasin when the hilt is banjarmasin.
From pictures in other threads I found that often the wrangka is quite simple and sometimes almost symetric in design.
Further, the examples I found with pendok's all have very simple brass plain pendoks.

This wrangka has a floral decoration something which is found more often in the Banjarmasin area due to muslim influence. It is also known from Negara weapons. such as parang nabur;s and the scarce negara mandau's.

If someone has more and/or different info on this I would surely like to hear it.

Best regards,
Willem

Hello Willem,
I agree that there is very little information about the Banjarmasin krisses.
According to Van Duuren's book "The Kris" page 82, many kris blades were forged in Negara during the 19th Century so not all the blades were imported.
Regarding the warangka crosspiece, most of them have a special kidney shape as shown in Frey's book page 72 for instance and other reference books. I never saw a crosspiece shaped like the one on your pictures but I would rather attribute its origin to East Java/ Madura.
Would you attribute my kris to Banjarmasin also since it has a Banjar hilt?
Best regards
Jean