When Captain William Flint sent this kris to the Prince Regent (later George IV) in 1818, he attached a note warning that ‘as all these weapons are more or less poisoned, it ought to be handled with caution’. Flint was the brother-in-law of Sir Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor of British Java (1811–1815). In his letter to the prince, Flint wrote that the kris has been given to him ‘by one of the native chiefs’.

The gold hilt is cast in the form of the Hanuman, the commander of the monkey army in Hindu mythology whose exploits are narrated in the Sanskrit poem Ramayana.