Keris of Peter the Great

[kai]

Hello Gustav,

Thanks for sharing the story of this "personal" keris of yours - no wonder that you're aiming to set high standards on things keris...

Despite the very mysterious description on online collection site of Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, this is Keris Peter the Great brought back to Russia from Netherlands in 1698 and was part of he's Kunstkammer collection. As such it was presented also in a Hermitage exhibition on Peter the Great in Amsterdam in 2013.

It belongs to a small group of very similar Keris. Another one was 1714 presented to Peter the Great's ally, Augustus II the Strong. It's in Dresden, Inv. Nr. 2880.

This group represent one of the pinnacles in history of Keris art.

It's a shame that there seem to be no surviving records of Peter's keris from the Oranje collection (at least that seems to be the most plausible source) - it would be really interesting to establish when it arrived in Europe!

Does the pamor qualify as ngindhen? The upper 2 thirds of the blade seem to exhibit an extensively surface-manipulated mlumah type - the similarity to the pamor in Dresden 2880 is neat!

Regards,
Kai