Keris Singa Barong 1800s

[A. G. Maisey]

Here you are Peter, this blade has the pamor made from meteoritic material.

How am I certain?

Because I welded the pamor. Then I gave it to a gentleman in Solo whom I considered to be producing the best non-picture Surakarta style keris at that time and had him make the blade. It took him two attempts before I was more or less happy with the job. This blade is still not perfect, the sogokan are not as good as they could be, but he did the best he could with the tools he had. When I rejected his first attempt, I believe it was sold to a diplomat from a South American country, might have been Venezuela.

This keris was made a few years ago now, I forget when, but about 1990 I think. The maker has now effectively retired himself from making keris and out of respect for his wish to remain inactive I prefer to withhold his name.

The warangka is thuya burl, made by Sutejo, the pendok is the work of Bp. Dayadi (alm.), the jejeran is also by Sutejo, the mendak is an old one made of gold and set with natural stones.

Objectively, this could be regarded as a pretty fair example of a current era keris.

NB. a "picture keris" is one that has some sort of carving to the blade, such as a naga, or a singo barong etc.