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Old 10th July 2016, 11:41 AM   #18
Gustav
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The matters with early sheaths are not so simple, and there is more important material available.

The Portuguese contacts in Java from 1512 on were, of course, with Hindu believers.

There is an inventory of Guarda Roupa (wardrobe, an analogue to Kunstkammer) of the King Manuel I of Portugal from 1522. A Keris is mentioned, with rock crystal hilt and scabbard adorned with rubies, and two other Keris, whose hilts were carved in the form of women (Heritage of Rauluchantim, catalogue of an exhibition held in Museu de Sao Roque in Lisboa, 1996). Another mentioning of this inventory in Exotica, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, 2000, says, these two other Keris have wooden scabbards, and the hilts are made from horn, adorned with rubies.

As I have written before, there is a possibility, that one of these Kerisses is the so called Deutschordens-Kris in Vienna.


Two quite famous Englishman visited Bali and Southern Java before 1600 - Francis Drake in 1580 and Thomas Cavendish in 1588. The first Dutch expedition reached Bali in 1597.

Contacts of both Drake and Cavendish on Java and Bali were with "gentiles", (the word used by English to distinguish Hindus from Muslims).

Drake brought a number of locally made weapons, including Keris, to England. There is a possibility, they still are in existence.


The oldest sheath with provenance is the other one from Vienna, first mentioned in 1607.

The hilt figure of this ensemble has a Keris at the waist, a clearly pronounced Ladrangan, as flamboyant as one from PBX era. It is of course no proof a Ladrangan like that existed in real life, as it is true for many elements in Wayang depictions. Yet the idea of Ladrangan was present.

(Try to carve a Ladrangan in wood and then in Andesite. You will experience the artistic limits of the material.)

Stylistically the carving of the figure shows a strong Majapahit influence or even could be Majapahit.

A good comparison to the Gambar of this sheath is Keris, depicted at the back of a Bhima-Kertolo statue from Museum Nasional, 15th cent. The point of Gandar of the sheath shows an embellishment at the same place where Keris Nr. EDb 24 from Kopenhagen (Jensen's book, page 69) has a floral carving. This Keris, blade and sheath, could perhaps be one of the oldest preserved.

As a conclusion - we absolutely can't rule out a possibility to still have a Majapahit sheath around somewhere.
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