This rare keris from Riau is a variant of the 'keris tajong', a keris style from Patani on the northeast Malay Peninsula. The curves in the blade have been filed, suggesting the blade was initially forged as a straight piece then filed to create the curves. The keris belongs to a group of Malay and Javanese keris collected by Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964) between 1911 and 1936. During this period, Gardner a colonial civil servant, a writer and occultist, sold approximately a hundred items to the Raffles Museum. Gardner was a weapons enthusiast. To the vast majority of European collectors at that time, the keris was merely a weapon. Gardner however, noticed the keris had a wide range of styles and make. He came to realise that each keris had its own cultural references. He often invited his Malay friends to show their keris and ‘collected’ supernatural tales of them. These tales were recorded in his book, 'Keris and Other Malay Weapons'.
