Yet Another Moro Kriss

[Jazz]

Hi. First of all, I would like to say how lucky I am to find such an incredibly great forum! I've been lurking here for awhile, and just recently join. As far as collection goes, what I have are mostly replicas, purchased from K-Bud and various flea markets. What meager Moro weapons I have in my possession are nothing to write home about; mostly from turn of the 20th century, ones that goes for cheap on a good day.

Well, my luck finally change for the better a few weeks ago. As I was searching ebay, I came across this item:



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...0%3D%26fvi%3D1



and was surprised that it went on for 4 days without anyone buying it since it has a Buy-it-Now option. My first impression was perhaps it was fake, but I decided to jump on it anyway since it was within my price range.. After receiving the kriss from the seller,







again, I was pleasantly surprise to find out that not only was this kriss authentic, it's a rare form unlike what I've seen before. It might not seem a lot compared to the extravagant krisses that some of the collectors in this forum have in their inventory, but for someone like me that is more into the historical aspects of these weapons, acquiring this piece was exilarating to say the least.



I will now attempt, to my best knowledge, explain why I think this kriss is 'rare'. At first glance, I thought it was a Sulu piece, but upon closer examination, it's actually Maranao. What is so intriguing about this is the fact that it's an older Maranao blade (1700's) based on the elephant trunk, which was made cruder compared to the later ones (1800's to 20th century).



to be continued...