Please help me identify this Keris.

[Gustav]

Alan, your remark on this Keris (#1) is

"this keris is a nice old Balinese one".

Your remark on a Keris (#2) from this thread - http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18653 - was

"Very ordinary sort of keris", without any positive/assertive adjectives in your further comment on it.

I completely agree with you, both Keris are "nice old Balinese ones" and both are "very ordinary sort of keris". Yet without the respectively missing part both remarks are not objective.

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Lets take a good chance for comparison of these two Keris.

Both are Balinese, both blades are Sempono. Keris #1 has 3, perhaps 4 layers of contrasting bright Pamor material, also Keris #2. On Keris #1 they look homogenous and quite thin, on Keris #2 they are layered in itself, so thicker, and are giving much more pleasant, lush overall Pamor appearance.

In terms of surface finish/polish Keris #2 has clearly has a better and/or better preserved one.

Keris #1 has quite flat Luk, usual for this Dhapur, Luk of #2 are more rounded and perhaps better proportioned.

Keris #1 dont have the markings on Gonjo below the Gandhik, which gives it a simpler appearance.

We don't have a picture of the front face of sheat of #1, so comparison is not possible.

The clear advantage of #1 is the very nice hilt with good Pelet. Either it is quite huge, which is not uncommon with Bebondolan with fancy grain, or the blade is quite small, like #2.

#1 has an Uwer, which seems to have only 4 stones, which is not common for more recently produced Uwer.

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So, it certainly had have a life prior to 1974 and maybe even before 1908.

Certainly not a blade which was made for tourists.

Almost certainly a Sudra, the lowest caste, about 93% of Balinese population around 1920.