Keris Sundang Melayu with a parrot hilt

[David]

Originally Posted by Newsteel

As for the blade, it is hard to actually pin point the exact region. Most malay sundang would have a smaller size and the metal preference is high carbon steel which tends to look more greyish black. But this is not a main factor when identifying malay sundang. We have example which looks Javanese with sogokan and tikel alis. But surprisingly came from Sulu. Picture below taken from Bill Marsh collection.

Bill Marsh's kris is a very old one from what i can see, what Cato calls the "archaic" style and dates to the 18th century. Michael's is obviously much newer than that. Could be early 20th C, give or take. The features you see on Bill's kris were more common in that day when the Moro kris was much closer to the look of Indonesian keris. But at this later date i have not seen any Moro kris that have a gonjo slant and greneng like Michael's sundang. The dress is Malay and the blade shows some very Malay attributes. Yes, the engraved lines are very Moro influenced. Still, given the entire package, i would lay my money on a Malay origin for the blade as well as the dress.