Ethnographic Arms & Armour
 

Go Back   Ethnographic Arms & Armour > Discussion Forums > Ethnographic Weapons
FAQ Calendar Today's Posts Search

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 15th June 2015, 07:35 AM   #8
kai
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,255
Default

Hello Ian,

Quote:
Here is the description provided by Hermann Historica in May, 2011 catalog.
Kleiner Kris der Moro,
Mindanao, 1. Hälfte 20. Jhdt. Gewellte Rasenerzklinge mit geschnittener Wurzel und Neusilbermanschette. Neusilber- und kupferdrahtgefasster Griff mit beschnitztem Beinknauf. Holzscheide mit drei Neusilberbändern. Länge 35,5 cm.
Provenienz: Freiherr von Hochstetter, Düsseldorf.
As usual, all auction house "descriptions" should be taken with a large lump of salt...

Translation:
Small kris of the Moro peoples
Mindanao, first half of the 20th century. Curved (i. e. with luk) pamor blade with scroll work (i. e. ricikan) at the base and white brass clamp. [comment: "Raseneisenerzklinge" is an idiosyncratic term of HH's "expert" which doesn't seem to imply more than local production, i. e. forging with visible layers of iron, i. e. pamor...]
Hilt with white metal bands and copper wire, and carved ivory/bone pommel.
Wooden scabbard with white metal bands.
[Total] length 35.5 cm. [14 inches]
Provenance: Freiherr von Hochstetter, Düsseldorf [Not sure how much this provenance helps: At least the items attributed to this private collection were above the average seen at these auctions which usually includes quite a bit of Karmadikan pieces. However, also some pieces from this collection seemed to be not antique and possibly cobbled together IMVHO.]

This is one of those pieces which one would like to examine personally before deciding to acquire it. The blade didn't appeal to me that much and I decided not to take the risk of bidding from pics (as obviously did others, too). In the worst case, I missed out on an antique ivory pommel with genuine silver and suasa fittings...

Note that the base of the blade includes pretty unusual ricikan: the gangya (at the gandik side) has those lines which are fairly rare in Indo keris while they are even emphasised with Moro kris. However, these don't look like Moro craftsmanship to me. Moreover, for the kembang kacang an unusually large opening seems to have cut. Thus, I'm not convinced that this is an Indo keris blade with localised fittings. This might rather be a Moro attempt to mimic an Indo keris blade?

Regards,
Kai

Last edited by kai; 16th June 2015 at 12:57 AM. Reason: auction house rather than action house ;)
kai is offline   Reply With Quote
 


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:59 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Posts are regarded as being copyrighted by their authors and the act of posting material is deemed to be a granting of an irrevocable nonexclusive license for display here.