Featured keris cufflink

dear all

metal cufflink about 1/2 inch with a keris sheathed (sorry shaky hand).
maker signature in jawi at back or something else. i am hoping @Any Jewelry will be able to translate.

not sure if it was made in malaya or indonesia, but quite certain pre-WWII. would this have been made for a society or club organisation?

regards
phaik hooi

 

Sorry, can't read Jawi. In Indonesia Jawi is mostly used for Islamic texts. Regular Javanese is written in Kawi or in Latin script.
But I think this was made in Kelantan, just on the other side of the Malay peninsula from you. The mark is probably a maker's mark.
The keris is Malay in style, it isn't sheathed by the way, you can see the waves, which means it is just the blade. The 'burung' or Garuda hilt is a popular hilt in Malaysia, but who am I telling.

 

i know where Kelantan is but obviously know zilch about the keris!

 

Well that's good, your sense of place and direction is perfect.

At least you recognized it.
You can't know everything about Malay culture. I have been meaning to start a keris explanation thread, haven't gotten around to it yet. But there are some keris posts and threads on the forum.

What are you going to do with the cufflink? You could have it made into a pair, with another back.

 

actually, it's one half of a pair. only spotted the other one after taking the photos. i thought the style, as in have both side the same, would be more pre-WWII than post-WWII? am i completely wrong again?

 

Good that you have the two. Are you sure they are 1/2 inch? They look bigger.
Chained double cufflinks (I don't know the proper name) are still made. These have age, but I don't know if they are that old. But the age doesn't really matter in this case, I think.
You could get a nice price for them internationally, a lot of keris collectors would like them.

 

@Any Jewellery update just for you

got a friend to translate the jaws but he has no idea when it could have been made. now am thinking it may be after merdeka (1957).
it says "Kelantan"!!!
and here's a better photo of the front with measurement

 

They are so nice. The little kerises have an extra triangular shape on the blades, they could represent a specific keris with kinatah (applied gold) decoration. Maybe a state keris? Symbol of Kelantan?

Aha!!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_coat_of_arms_of_Kelantan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malaysian_flags
seems like it is the only malay state with keris on it's flag.
the keris has become a symbol of all malays, so might even get good money locally