The blade of this keris appears to have some age, it is somewhere between very difficult & impossible to be able to be certain about many keris characteristics when all we have is a photo on a screen, but my guess at age for this keris would be second half, 19th century.
The overall impression of this blade is old Madura, but there are conflicting indicators, the principal deviation from a Madura keris being the shape of the blumbangan:-
Ian, could you please provide a close up of the blade base with the camera at 90 degrees directly above it?
The dress was probably made in or around Surabaya.
In Surabaya there is a large general market named Pasar Turi. You can buy anything at this market, food, clothing, kitchen utensils, tools --- anything one might need, including keris.
It is a very old market, but some years back it was rebuilt, it now consists of a couple of very large, two story concrete buildings, the keris section is in the back building, upstairs, at the very end.
In my opinion this keris is a Pasar Turi product.
I have not visited the Pasar Turi keris section for perhaps 25 years, it is full of second rate garbage, if anything decent comes on the scene the prices for an outsider are New York gallery prices. From my perspective, it is simply a waste of time for anybody who is looking for decent quality to visit, but as I have said, its a long time since I have been there, maybe it has improved. But according to what I hear it is the same as it was in the past.
This keris that you have Ian, screams "Pasar Turi". I have seen baskets & boxes full of the metal components of this keris, especially the mendak/selut fitting. I have seen keris of all different styles, that originated in Pasar Turi, in markets all over Jawa & Bali.
I would be inclined to put a date of 1960's -- 1970's on the dress. I'm basing that guess on the metal work. I first started to see this mendak/selut style -- flower cup with twisted wire -- in Australia in the 1960's.
Considering weapons related work in the period 1940 to 1970 in what is now Indonesia. The Japanese occupied Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) from early 1942 through to 1945. The occupation was strict on all types of weapons, any type of weapon, including keris, that the owner wished to keep was kept well & truly out of sight. Manufacture of weapons was prohibited.
Supposedly, the Japanese took over 70,000 keris out of the Indies, during & after the war. I have heard this story over & over again from many keris interested people who lived through this period of occupation.
The period between the end of WWII and late 1960's was very unsettled, it is possible that some keris related activity might have been occurring but it definitely was not general.
Late 1960's to 1970 was the period when the keris revival got off the ground, it progressed during the 1970's and it took off during the 1980's.
During the late colonial period, say 1920 to 1940 the keris work being done in Jawa seems to have still been following tradition.
In summary, my opinion is that this keris was produced in Pasar Turi, Surabaya and exported to another location in Indonesia for sale. The retail sale location was most likely Jakarta. The blade is not a 20th century production, it pre-dates 1900.
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