Doecon, i think you are missing the point. From my perspect at least (and MY reason for starting this thread) i couldn't care less about determining which one of your random 5 is a pusaka keris And i will say it again, a pusaka keris is not necessarily a court piece. A keris that has been in ANYBODY's family and passed down over 10 generations is certainly a pusaka keris in my book, but that doesn't make it a kraton keris. It may very well not have a clear origin, or that history might be exaggerated or even made up. It is less likely that the history of a royal court piece would be as unclear.
What i am interested in is this: given there is provenence for the keris, what would qualify it as a kraton keris. Without provenence you can speculate until the cows come home about the origins of any particular piece. To state that such a keris (without provenence) is a kraton keris is at best misleding since you don't and probably never will know for sure.
BTW, mpus can't be "just anybody". They are in service to the kraton and are obviously there due to their skills and lineage. Many of the keris in our collections are actually pandai made,not by mpus, which isn't to say that pandai haven't made some very nice keris.......and some very bad or mediocre keris. I would image that the vast majority of royal pusaka are mpu made, not something done by a village smith. Some of the blades might be very unassuming. Many are nor masterpieces. But they are mostly well made. Certainly if one were to compare an old keris blade made by a good pandai and one made by the kraton mpu of the same time they might not be able to tell which is which unless the kraton work was a supurlative piece made by the master on a good day. But this isn't the question at hand.
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