Is This A Royal Keris?

A. G. Maisey · 10th August 2014, 04:40 AM

A "Royal Keris" can in fact be a keris of any level of quality.

Many years ago I had the opportunity on a couple of occasions to handle keris that were kept in the storerooms of the Kraton Surakarta, some of these were pusaka keris, some were keris that had been gifted at times in the past from other rulers or dignitaries, some were just keris about which nothing was known. Almost without exception all these keris were pretty ordinary.

On the other hand, the keris that are worn by high ranking members of the Kraton hierarchy are almost always very good keris. I have two Balinese keris that were once the property of one of the Balinese rulers, both these are quite exceptional in terms of quality and value, but even so, a wealthy person could put together a keris of similar quality and value, it would not necessarily need to be a member of the royal family who put it together.

This Palembang keris is a fairly frequently seen pattern, I have a couple myself, and I sold one not all that long ago. I believe something like this would probably have been owned by a wealthy man, rather than by royalty.

10th August 2014, 04:40 AM	#3
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	A "Royal Keris" can in fact be a keris of any level of quality. Many years ago I had the opportunity on a couple of occasions to handle keris that were kept in the storerooms of the Kraton Surakarta, some of these were pusaka keris, some were keris that had been gifted at times in the past from other rulers or dignitaries, some were just keris about which nothing was known. Almost without exception all these keris were pretty ordinary. On the other hand, the keris that are worn by high ranking members of the Kraton hierarchy are almost always very good keris. I have two Balinese keris that were once the property of one of the Balinese rulers, both these are quite exceptional in terms of quality and value, but even so, a wealthy person could put together a keris of similar quality and value, it would not necessarily need to be a member of the royal family who put it together. This Palembang keris is a fairly frequently seen pattern, I have a couple myself, and I sold one not all that long ago. I believe something like this would probably have been owned by a wealthy man, rather than by royalty.