Unusual pamor
 

Hi All, any insight into this keris much appreciated.

Obviously Malay dress (sheath not that old, I think); old ivory Jawa demam hilt (inset eyes missing). Old Malay hilt cup.

Blade is slender and dainty and looks to me like the Javanese pamor lawe saukel; overall seems like a Javanese product. Blade is old, but has been well-fitted to the Malay-type sheath.

I would be grateful if anyone is willing to share their opinion on this one.

Cheers

Yes Adam, one of the Lawe Setukel variations, most likely East Jawa/Madura.

Sheath is From Terengganu, first half of 20th cent, likely second quarter.
Hilt - Minangkabau, Sumatra.
Pedongkok - likely Terengganu.

Nice keris. Not uncommon to find Madurese or Javanese keris in Malay dress.
I think the ivory Jawa Demam has some age, bit feel that the colour has been augmented to give it an even older appearance.

Does this keris have an iron core?

Good question. Is this not the core revealed here though?

I'm just not sure David. The metal is so bright. :confused:

That does appear to be separation of the pamor layer from the steel core, it would surprise me if this keris did not have a core, it appears to have some age, and this type of pamor is not usually found in a keris made purely for decorative purposes.

However, to be certain that it does have a core we would need to examine both sides at the same time, looking at both edges simultaneously so that we could see the same separation, or if not the actual separation, the line of demarcation between core & pamor layer, at the same place on the blade, on both sides of the blade.

Hello Gustav,

May I ask you why you think or be certain about the age of the Terengganu scabbard? In my humble opinion it could be older when it was refurbished at one point in its history.

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Adam,

Can we see a picture how the blade fits in the scabbard?

Regards,
Detlef

Yes, this is something I had wondered about even from the seller's photographs, as the pamor seemed to go right to the edges of the blade around the full periphery.

Now that I have the blade to hand I'm none the wiser; I can't see a clear separation of core from pamor on either face or anywhere along the margins.

These additional photos might help to show that.

I did think from the seller's images that this might be a "core-less" decorative blade, which I had read about before, in which case the apparent age of the blade (even in seller's images, the patina was evident) intrigued me.

Thanks David, are there any tell-tale clues RE artificial colouring of ivory that I should look for? (Apologies if there are already extensive threads dedicated to this topic - as with the Phantom, I came in late).

G'day Detlef; here you go

Thank you Alan; I'm told blithely but rather authoritatively by the internet that this is a rare and sought-after pamor type; is that right?

cheers
A

Detlef, I think so because of the form of Sampir. 19th cent. Terengganu Sampir is quite similar to Riau-Johore Sampir, from which it likely originates. During the first part of 20th cent. the Terengganu form becomes "boxier".

Hilt.
To my eye the entire hilt looks like it has been soaked in very strong tea, or maybe even coffee, & then given a good rubbing with coconut husk.

Blade core
I very much doubt that this is a recent decorative blade, OK, I'm basing my opinion on photos, but from those photos my impression is that this is not of recent manufacture. I feel that the gonjo could well be later than the body of the blade.

Rather than referring to a "blade core", it might be more correct to refer to a "cutting edge". Some older blades, I think probably most that I have seen would be around the Second Mataram era, do have an inserted cutting edge. There are several ways of producing a pamor blade with an inserted edge, but what happens as the blade ages is that with continued cleaning & maintenance that inserted edge erodes and we see the cutting edge disappear.

When I remarked that we need to see both edges at the same time, this is not possible to do in a photo, I do not mean that we look at the blade edge on, what we do is to turn the blade slightly, from side to side & continue to focus on just that section of the blade where we see the separation of cutting edge from pamor layer, we can then perhaps see a similar separation, or at least a defining line, between cutting edge & pamor layer on both sides of the blade in the same section of the blade.

Esoterica
It is believed by some people that this particular pamor can have an adverse effect upon the possessor if that person is not strong enough to withstand the esoteric influence of the powers contained in the blade. However, many other people believe that it has strong defensive power to protect against black magic. It is a fairly widespread belief that it is definitely not a pamor that is suited to everybody, & you don't really know if it is suited to you or not until the sh*t hits the fan, so its best to stay away from it.
It is a relatively easy pamor to produce.
As for being "sought after", well a lot of collectors are rather partial to this pamor, I myself am pretty found of it & have a very old, very good example, but most keris literate, traditional Javanese people tend to avoid this pamor.

Thank you very much Gustav! :)

Thank you Adam! The scabbard seems to be made for the blade, if I were you I would look for a fitting Terengganu handle.

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Alan,

The ivory handle seems to have a good age, there is a crack in the handle and the base is replaced by a piece of horn most probably because it was too splitted, why should it be soaked in tea or coffee to age it artificially?

Regards,
Detlef

Post #4, David suggests that this dark colouring of the hilt is perhaps not entirely natural.

I agree with him.

I have more than a few ivories, well over 100 ivory hilts, some of which are several hundred years old, in addition I have many other ivories. Only the few that have been purposely coloured bear colour resembling the colour of this hilt. This type of patination does not in my experience occur naturally, it requires some outside agent to generate it.

In respect of why this was done we would need to ask the person who did it.

I am not prepared to speculate as to why this particular hilt might have been coloured.

I do know that the application of false patina is quite prevalent in Asian & South East Asian societies. I used to be acquainted with several dealers in Jawa & Bali who practiced this method of "enhancement", I saw how it was done.

This hilt under discussion looks to me as if it has been treated in this way.

Thanks very much Alan. Have you ever tried to restore an artificially-stained piece of ivory to its original condition, or would that be inviting disappointment into one's life? How deeply would the tea/coffee staining penetrate into the ivory, I wonder?

Thanks very much for your advice on this Detlef.

Thanks Alan; my feeling is that there was no core, or inserted edge, with this one. How would they have inserted an edge, by the way?

I have to concede that the pamor pattern gives me an uneasy feeling, but I'm also one of those people who gets mildly creeped out by the lotus seed pod pattern (trypophobia), which is the fear or intense aversion to clusters of small holes, bumps, or pitted patterns. I think the lawe pattern triggers this in me!

Adam, we can see a place on the blade where the pamor has separated from something, if that something is not a core or the remnant of an inserted edge, then what is it?

It might be a layer of iron that the pamor was laid onto, but when we find this type of construction we virtually always find a layer of steel between the two layers of iron.

Much of the original pamor motif has been clipped at the blade edges, this indicates that the blade was originally quite a bit wider than it is now, this decrease in width can also be guessed at because of the unbalanced pawakan (overall visual impression). One of the things that is done during normal blade maintenance is that the edges of a blade are filed to get rid of the little ragged edge pieces, over time the blade narrows.

In my opinion, & based upon what I believe I can see, I think it is very likely that this blade definitely did have a cutting edge. A blade with this pamor & made for purely dress or decorative purposes would have been made in the 20th century, I tend to think that this blade was made quite a bit earlier than 20th century.

There are a number of ways that a cutting edge can be inserted into a blade forging, the most common that we find in Javanese blades is an interlocking “V”. This technique seems to be mostly found in blades from the Second Mataram era.

Ivory.
By & large I do not fiddle around with ivory, about the most I ever do is rub a bit of baby oil into it. I was once advised by a very dedicated collector of ivory that the best oil to rub into ivory is nose oil, so we stroke our noses, then rub the resude of oil from the nose onto the ivory. Regrettably my nose is not large & impressive enough to supply sufficient oil for all my ivories.

Thanks Alan, I'll take a closer look at the blade. I did think that if there had once been a cutting edge that has been worn/filed away over time we might see more obvious traces of it at the very base of the blade above the gonjo, but that is not the case.

Interesting RE the "nose oil"; a long time ago I read that Melanesian people would rub oil from their nose, forehead, and cheeks on their fine-grained stone axe heads to bring out the lustre of the stone and really make them shine. I've done this before and it really works well. Thanks for sharing.

Adam, the place where we can see the separation is, in my opinion a part of the blade base. It is entirely possible that if edge insertion or core were used that neither would necessarily go all the way through the gandhik.