A bugis Keris for discussion

[kai]

Hello Leif,

That's a typical Bugis style sepokal blade (not necessarily from Sulawesi though) and (after thorough cleaning of all remaining rust) good to go for centuries to come...

The wrangka is not original to the Keris, and is newer, though the previous owner tells me both it and the keris came from Sulawesi. The shape of the gambar looks a little odd for Sulawesi to my eye, and I wonder if it has been reshaped at some point. He also says that the wrangka was originally covered in snakeskin (presumably on the gandar), but the skin was eaten by insects, who also damaged the horn on the buntut. This seems weird to me, and I haven't had any luck finding any examples of a wrangka covered with snakeskin. The silver filigree bands (which I'm very enamored with) sit a bit loosely on the gandar as is, and certainly fit more snugly with something under them. The wood is also highly chatoyant.

This has certainly seen major repair attempts: The sampir/gambar has been reshaped into a kinda crescent shape but the flow of lines is gruesome (look for some good examples on the forum and do a better job!); the buntut is also not traditional but more easily replaceable; the tapering gandar is unusual but I don't see clear signs of reshaping (please take a pic without the rings); these rings look more Malay/Straits/Sumatran to me as does the hilt and pendokok.

While the original shape of the sampir apparently was the blocky Bugis style, crescent shaped cross pieces are not unusual for the Straits region and neighbouring areas. Given the good quality of the wooden parts, I doubt that adding snake skin is a good idea; I have seen a few keris with it but none looked really convincing - most likely to cover up damages or sloppy repair work. I'd add wooden shims to fix the rings.

Regards,
Kai