Wallace Collection Keris

[Naga Sasra]

David,
I believe this piece to be Wallace Collection inventory # 1741 it is described as follows;

1741 Dagger (Kris). The hilt is fashioned of blued steel with a grooved hatched and key pattern design chased and inlaid with gold. The blade, 10 1/4 in. long, is of spatular form, widening towards the hilt, where the outline is moulded and the surface russeted, with a design of conventional flowers engraved and thickly plated with gold. This same decoration runs down the centre of the blade.
Blade, Malay, 17th century. Hilt of French workmanship adapted from another weapon. Early 18th century.

The above is the description from the Wallace Collection. Interesting combination of assets.
Erik

[David]

Originally Posted by Naga Sasra

Hilt of French workmanship adapted from another weapon. Early 18th century.

Thanks...that explains most of my confusion...

[A. G. Maisey]

Good to to see you posting here again, Erik.

It explains the hilt, certainly, but it does not explain the blade.

In my opinion this blade is not of Malay manufacture.

The British in the colonial days were wont dub just about all SE Asians as "Malay", but this blade is not Indonesian either --- or as it was back then from the Dutch East Indies.

The blade angle, pawakan, the decline of the edges to the point, the gold work, none of these things look like a true keris. None of them. This weapon simply does not look like any keris I've ever seen. Yes, it has some keris-like features, but that's where it stops.

I rather feel that this blade might have been made in India to the order of a Britain, or European.

[David]

Thanks for your input Alan. Yes, my confusion did not stop at the hilt. Glad you know that i may have good reason being confused.

[Battara]

Very helpful Alan and Erik, thank you.

I had always wondered about this particular piece for years.

Mystery solved.

[Gustav]

I feel, we should study a little bit more this fascinating weapon.

At first it seems to be clear, that what we see isn't the original state. The blade has been sharpened, very possibly losing some length and width (judging from the gold work), yet the most serious loss is the front Pudak Sategal. Just imagine it, and there will be no Kukri anymore in this picture.

This happens in a region where people do appreciate a sharp cutting edge and is not unusual regarding Keris, see the other example. The loss of material can be pretty substancial.

Interesting for me regarding ornamentics of this weapon is the way two kinds of popular ornaments are united. The first one is the natural plant ornament in the central panel (on a blade without sogokan, that meens, the "source" of the plant is visible), feature the weapon from Wallace collection shares with the other Keris depicted in this post.

The second kind of ornamentics is the sequence of curls, on Wallace weapon they are found on edges till the end of the remaining Pudak Sategal and on Gonjo. I feel, this ornament possibly derived from both DongSon spiral ornaments and more recent Chinese Ming influences.

I don't have any knowledge about Indian ornaments, so I don't know, if one or both of these ornaments are found on Indian weapons, yet both of them are found on Indonesian/Malay Keris, and there are big differences in how they are executed on different Keris. Of course, these are just ornaments.

[Gustav]

Here are the pictures of different Keris with the second kind of ornament, the sequences of curls. Interesting fact is, on gonjo of Wallace weapon the sides are covered with the curling ornament, yet the back of Gonjo seems to have the naturalistic plant ornament on it.