Old Javanese keris for comment

A. G. Maisey · 6th August 2017, 10:36 PM

I do not know where this is from, what I do know is that it is mix of styles, but on the face of it, those styles seemed intended, as in, I doubt that this is a dealer's melange.

The blade is unremarkable, low quality work, but it does have a suggestion of Madura/East Jawa.

The top part of the scabbard (atasan, gambar) has a tendency towards Madura form, but it does not conform to any style that I have seen. I say that it leans to Madura because of those little bumps at each end --- some Madura ladrangs have a similar bump at one end, with the bump at the other end much less pronounced.

The pendok looks like Banyumas, but again, Madura pendoks sometimes have a lis (the little collar around the top), however, the motif is not like anything I would expect on a Madura pendok.

The mendak/selut looks like South Sumatera, but the scallops seem to have been aligned to the flat planes of the hilt, which is Central Javanese in style.

There is a tendency to drop things that we cannot clearly identify into a basket that nobody really knows the contents of, and there are a lot of towns and areas right across Jawa where people wore keris, but they were not under the direct influence of any kraton, so in these places styles can get a bit mixed up, or distorted.

But there is another place where people from over-populated Jawa and Madura went to settle and where they still wore keris, but when they made new dress for a keris they worked on memory and added enhancements that did not fit into the society from which they came.

That place was Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo.

This is a pure guess, as I said, I do not know where this keris is from, but I wonder if it might be able to be attributed to Kalimantan?

6th August 2017, 10:36 PM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	I do not know where this is from, what I do know is that it is mix of styles, but on the face of it, those styles seemed intended, as in, I doubt that this is a dealer's melange. The blade is unremarkable, low quality work, but it does have a suggestion of Madura/East Jawa. The top part of the scabbard (atasan, gambar) has a tendency towards Madura form, but it does not conform to any style that I have seen. I say that it leans to Madura because of those little bumps at each end --- some Madura ladrangs have a similar bump at one end, with the bump at the other end much less pronounced. The pendok looks like Banyumas, but again, Madura pendoks sometimes have a lis (the little collar around the top), however, the motif is not like anything I would expect on a Madura pendok. The mendak/selut looks like South Sumatera, but the scallops seem to have been aligned to the flat planes of the hilt, which is Central Javanese in style. There is a tendency to drop things that we cannot clearly identify into a basket that nobody really knows the contents of, and there are a lot of towns and areas right across Jawa where people wore keris, but they were not under the direct influence of any kraton, so in these places styles can get a bit mixed up, or distorted. But there is another place where people from over-populated Jawa and Madura went to settle and where they still wore keris, but when they made new dress for a keris they worked on memory and added enhancements that did not fit into the society from which they came. That place was Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. This is a pure guess, as I said, I do not know where this keris is from, but I wonder if it might be able to be attributed to Kalimantan?