A feast for the eyes.

[kino]

Thanks Dave and Lonna for letting me play with it.

[kino]

More photos

[Rick]

Bone or ivory pommel?
The center looks kind of gray, and along with that plug..... :confused:
Lovely work!

[DaveS]

Rick: The handle is ivory. The kicker is that it is a combination moro horses hoof, and an indonesian garuda. You can also see that it is offset to the normal angle of the blade, but when you examine things closely you also can easily determine that it was ABSOLUTELY mounted that way. Albert and i have never seen one of this particular style, nor have we ever seen one mounted at this angle to the blade............Dave

[elevennevele]

Rick: Albert and i have never seen one of this particular style, nor have we ever seen one mounted at this angle to the blade............Dave


It would seem then that this sword when made, or mounted was personalized to be effective for the owner's right-handedness.

[VVV]

Wonderful kris!!!

I have seen it's brother in one of the old Scandinavian collections with a resembling "offset" combo of horse's hoof and jawa demam/garuda hilt.
That one is straight, also has twist core and the more Indonesian resembling Ladrang style scabbard.
Another collector friend has another rare one with a classic jawa demam hilt mounted as a pommel. That one with an unusual scabbard with Dayak aso motifs.
Unfortunately I am not allowed to publish them here but both of them are pictured in Karsten Sejr Jensen's soon to come sequel to his earlier book on Keris/Kris.
I am not sure from where this rare hilt variation originates, maybe from North Borneo like the second Kris I described?

Michael

[elevennevele]

It would seem that this sword when made (or mounted) was personalized for the owner’s right hand. Unless the person does a lot of back handed swings with their left hand, the angle in the photo suggests it would suit a slashing motion with the right hand like you would swing a bat. It would allow this motion without the person having to twist their wrist much to align the blade’s edge to it's intended target. IMHO.

[Spunjer]

excellent kris!

[Battara]

:eek: Beautiful puppy! :D

I have not seen asang-asang like that before. I have not seen such okir chasing work like this on Sulu pieces (though the ferrule is Sulu style of okir). The ivory is amazing! Blade is georgeous!

I am surprised at the angle of the pommel - usually you see this type of angle and direction on post 1950s pieces. :shrug:

Thank you so much for the sharing. :)

[kino]

[QUOTE=Rick]Bone or ivory pommel?
The center looks kind of gray, and along with that plug..... :confused:
QUOTE]

What are you trying to say Rick :confused:

[DaveS]

Michael: The kris looks to me to have been made in sulu, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was from N. Borneo given the close proximity to the sulu island chain.

[DaveS]

Jose: In the pictures i sent to you last year, there was one of a Maranau kris with an octagonal silver grip with gold bands and a horn jungayyan handle but from what i can remember the okir was almost the same as on this sulu kris. I wonder if the closeness of the two groups might account for this similarity, as i have never really seen much difference in the okir decoration. Maybe i just never paid that much attention............Dave.

[Rick]

[QUOTE=Rick]Bone or ivory pommel?
The center looks kind of gray, and along with that plug..... :confused:
QUOTE]

What are you trying to say Rick :confused:

Just a simple question Kino.

[VVV]

Michael: The kris looks to me to have been made in sulu, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was from N. Borneo given the close proximity to the sulu island chain.

Dave,

I don't doubt that the blade is Sulu. It was the specific "dress" with the hilt variation that I speculated could come from Sabah based on the resembling kris I have seen in other collections.

Michael

[Battara]

Jose: In the pictures i sent to you last year, there was one of a Maranau kris with an octagonal silver grip with gold bands and a horn jungayyan handle but from what i can remember the okir was almost the same as on this sulu kris. I wonder if the closeness of the two groups might account for this similarity, as i have never really seen much difference in the okir decoration. Maybe i just never paid that much attention............Dave.
Well geographically speaking the 2 groups are not that close. The Maranao and Maguindanao are closer and do great chasing work. However, their form of okir is different than that of the Sulu group. I am basing my observations on the style of okir used which is more in line with the Sulu group. There is an example of a Sulu kris in Cato that has a nearly identical motif on the silver bands (although I am not in what my wife calls the library/armoury to get the page number).