Good story.
In respect of "Royal" keris.
During the 1980's I saw and handled a number of keris that were indisputably "Royal" keris. They were held in the store rooms of the Surakarta Kraton and were keris that had been gifted to kraton officials, and to previous Susuhunans, and keris that had been made on order from the Kraton. In most cases these were very ordinary keris.
A Javanese "Royal" keris does not need to be super great to be legitimate.
This keris shown may well have spent time in a Kraton storeroom.
However, the dress is very, very pedestrian quality and the keris itself is poorly matched to the dress.
Again, this poor presentation is not at all unusual for something coming from the Surakarta Kraton. There are more than a few examples of very, very ordinary keris floating around, some of which are very famous ( and have been for a long time), are in museums, or during the 20th century were given to visiting heads of state and politicians.
I was once offered a keris that had been presented to a former Australian Prime Minister, not by a kraton, but by (I guess) a representative of the Indonesian Government. It was one notch above rubbish. Probably a good indication of how much respect that particular Aussie PM got from Jakarta.
Just because a keris has been presented to somebody, by somebody, it does not mean that its value is any more than the sum value of its individual parts.
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