"Early" Moro kris

[Ian]

Xasterix has recently posted some excellent pictures from a Spanish auction here. I have looked through the Moro kris shown in those pictures, and there is one that stands out for me as likely to be older than the others based on its features resembling the Javanese keris.

Panoply A from the Xasterix post has been copied below with the swords labeled. Number A-11 appears to be the oldest one shown in these pictures. It has many features seen on the "modern Javanese kris" which I mentioned above. In addition, the gandik is unusually tall for a Moro kris, more in keeping with some old keris, such as the 16th C keris I have referred to before.

In my continuing search for "early" Moro kris, this one may have the most features in common with the Javanese keris. Interestingly, this one does not have an asang asang, and may never have had one (although the quality of the blown up pictures make it hard to tell if there was one originally).

Seeing A-11 displayed with much larger, heavier, and (probably) more recent kris, with notably wider and longer blades, suggests to me that A-11 is a good candidate for a progenitor of the "modern Moro kris." I would place it earlier than 1800, and perhaps much earlier.

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