Thank you all for your instructive and educational insights. The blade does seem so entirely utilitarian, so perhaps this carved dress was added to a tool blade for sale to the traveler? I should add that in the same lot there was what appeared to be a large Balinese keris with a carved wooden hilt in very much the same style, wood and finish, but different from all of those in my personal experience. That keris had a simple, high contrast pamor blade that did not scream of antiquity to me.
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