My first old keris pedang

kai · 14th January 2023, 01:30 AM

Thanks for the additional close-ups, Anthony!

As expected, age of the blade is tough to nail down: I don't see obvious signs of later work; there appears to be only little wear or loss though.

If it came out Indonesia recently, I might be inclined to vote for early 20th century. From Europe or the US without reliable earlier provenance it still might have been imported from Indonesia somewhat recently!

In case of an established provenance from a colonial collection, a 19th c. origin seems reasonable. Even in the absence of provenance, I might lean more to such a slightly earlier date...

Tough call - it certainly would be preferable to examine it (and the scabbard) personally to form a more reliable guess.

Regards,
Kai

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14th January 2023, 01:30 AM	#10
kai Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3,255	Thanks for the additional close-ups, Anthony! As expected, age of the blade is tough to nail down: I don't see obvious signs of later work; there appears to be only little wear or loss though. If it came out Indonesia recently, I might be inclined to vote for early 20th century. From Europe or the US without reliable earlier provenance it still might have been imported from Indonesia somewhat recently! In case of an established provenance from a colonial collection, a 19th c. origin seems reasonable. Even in the absence of provenance, I might lean more to such a slightly earlier date... Tough call - it certainly would be preferable to examine it (and the scabbard) personally to form a more reliable guess. Regards, Kai