My own thinking on this is that, the keris is meant to be a Riau variation of the Bugis design. The overall impact if you will, is that of a Bugis Riau piece. BUT... looking at the qlty of metal used... the formation of the pamor used... this piece reeks of the bouquet of a Palembang made blade.
And Palembang, the Riau Islands and the southern Johor state in the peninsula are all cheek by jowl wth each other in that region... so cross cultural influence, trade etc would have made it very possible that there is a strong influence of Palembang in the manufacture of this blade.
But again, I am OK with looking at this as either, as it still cannot detract me from the fact that this is a very nice piece...
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