First Keris

[kai]

Hello Jean,

Could you please explain to us why you are rather placing this kris In East Sumatra or South Malaysia and not Sulawesi?

Keris from Sulawesi come in a bewildering variety of blades and fittings; thus, it's tough to generalize. However, the stem of the scabbard tends to distinctly taper towards the foot - a stem with an almost equal width along its length is a feature indicating Malay origins.

These small-size blades are very common in the Melakka Straits area (Gustav is correct that it's usually next to impossible to distinguish between the eastern Sumatran coast and the western Malay coast). The very bulky crosspieces seem to have been especially favored along the Sumatran East coast down to Jambi and Palembang; including the islands off the Sumatran coast, the odds are kinda swayed towards Sumatra rather than Johore and neighboring areas though.

Also the flow of lines of the blade tends to be more subtle for keris Melayu while those from Sulawesi tend to be more bold.

BTW the selut is oversized (so not original to the hilt) and should preferably be replaced.

We'd need a shot from above to verify. Some of these selut exhibit a pronounced distance between the outer rim and the opening for the bungkul; from the last pic, this may be one of this type (a little skrinkage of the wood due to low humidity might explain minor gaps).

Regards,
Kai