A kris with a hilt from carved wood that represents a cowering demon. The figure shows remains of a red painting and an overlying gilding.
Presumably, the mendak (clamp) is made out of brass and put together from three parts; the middle ring is stud with little rubies (or garnet or red glass flow) and with tourmaline (or green glass flow).
The nickel-containing flamed blade exhibits the typical pamor pattern (similar to a damascening). The wooden sheath is decorated with plain carved decorations on the cross piece; the crosspiece originally was gold-plated.
The object was acquired by the Ulm merchant Christoph Weickmann for his cabinet of curiosities and is mentioned in the inventory for Weickmann's collection of 1659. From where he obtained the non-European objects is unknown except for one case and not researchable due to missing sources. What is certain, however, is that Weickmann didn't gain them on site by himself. He must have got them from middlemen because he didn't travel outside of Europe.
The remains of the collection Weickmann came into possession of the city of Ulm between 1785 and 1825 and were deposited with the Association for Arts and Antiquities in Ulm and Upper Swabia since 1857. At the end of the 19th century the objects came, together with the collection of the Antiquities Society, into the newly founded Gewerbemuseum (Museum of Applied Arts) and 1925 into the Museum of the City of Ulm.
de