Three early keris
This short note by R. O. Winstedt describes three early keris in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which he identifies as probably the earliest authenticated specimens in any English collection (p. 22).
Summary
Winstedt provides brief descriptions of the three blades, noting their hilts: one carved with a European figure in helmet and chain gorget, a second with a Javanese demigod (possibly Arjuna) from the wayang kulit cycle, and a third with a long-nosed figure showing affinities with Patani keris hilts. He observes that the conventional angle of the Jawa demam hilt type is preserved in all three and speculates on its possible derivation from a people practising head-binding (p. 22).
The note then traces the provenance of the keris through the Tradescant Collection, established by John Tradescant the elder in the early 17th century, which passed to Sir Thomas Ashmole and thence to Oxford in 1683. Winstedt cites the 1656 Museum Tradescantianum entry for “Poisoned creeses or Daggers, two waved two plain,” the 1685 Lhwyd catalogue description of the demigod-hilted keris, and the 1836 Ashmolean catalogue, thereby establishing the weapons’ history “practically beyond doubt back to the early years of the XVIIth century” (pp. 22–23).