Hello Ian,
Quote:
Here is the description provided by Hermann Historica in May, 2011 catalog. Kleiner Kris der Moro,
Mindanao, 1. Hälfte 20. Jhdt. Gewellte Rasenerzklinge mit geschnittener Wurzel und Neusilbermanschette. Neusilber- und kupferdrahtgefasster Griff mit beschnitztem Beinknauf. Holzscheide mit drei Neusilberbändern. Länge 35,5 cm.
Provenienz: Freiherr von Hochstetter, Düsseldorf.
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As usual, all auction house "descriptions" should be taken with a large lump of salt...
Translation:
Small kris of the Moro peoples
Mindanao, first half of the 20th century. Curved (i. e. with luk) pamor blade with scroll work (i. e. ricikan) at the base and white brass clamp. [comment: "Raseneisenerzklinge" is an idiosyncratic term of HH's "expert" which doesn't seem to imply more than local production, i. e. forging with visible layers of iron, i. e. pamor...]
Hilt with white metal bands and copper wire, and carved ivory/bone pommel.
Wooden scabbard with white metal bands.
[Total] length 35.5 cm. [14 inches]
Provenance: Freiherr von Hochstetter, Düsseldorf [Not sure how much this provenance helps: At least the items attributed to this private collection were above the average seen at these auctions which usually includes quite a bit of Karmadikan pieces. However, also some pieces from this collection seemed to be not antique and possibly cobbled together IMVHO.]
This is one of those pieces which one would like to examine personally before deciding to acquire it. The blade didn't appeal to me that much and I decided not to take the risk of bidding from pics (as obviously did others, too). In the worst case, I missed out on an antique ivory pommel with genuine silver and suasa fittings...
Note that the base of the blade includes pretty unusual ricikan: the gangya (at the gandik side) has those lines which are fairly rare in Indo keris while they are even emphasised with Moro kris. However, these don't look like Moro craftsmanship to me. Moreover, for the kembang kacang an unusually large opening seems to have cut. Thus, I'm not convinced that this is an Indo keris blade with localised fittings. This might rather be a Moro attempt to mimic an Indo keris blade?
Regards,
Kai