Old Cirebon Keris for comment.

[Athanase]

Hello,

When I bought this old Keris there was only the blade and the handle with a remnant of Gandar with pendok from Madura. But when I look the blade and the handle I suppose that it comes rather from the region of Cirebon.
The handle is made of wood but it has the particularity of having the base covered with a ring made of buffalo horn.
The blade is very worn out and has just been quickly cleaned with WD40.

To dress up this Keris I added an old bronze medak I had in stock and for the warangka I just temporarily put an old gambar (too narrow for the blade to completely fit) and an old gandar from a different lot.

[A. G. Maisey]

I would classify this blade as Segaluh, which is West Jawa, not North Coast, but is quite commonly found in North Coast dress ---- in fact Segaluh blades are very commonly found in dress from all over the region, it is a very old classification and was located near to a major trading port, so Segaluh blades spread to everywhere.

The hilt style can come from West Jawa, North Coast, through into East Jawa, so although not specifically Cirebon, it sits OK as Cirebon.

I believe this gambar will accommodate the blade with just a very minor degree of adjustment.

Use of a horn selut is a common repair.

The mendak is a nice mating for this ensemble.

[Jean]

I fully agree with Alan's comments but just add that the scabbard is from East Java IMO so is not perfectly matching with the blade & hilt. I will soon post a similar blade which I just purchased for comparison.
Regards

[Jean]

Pics of my similar blade in Segaluh style, also similar to Patje's blade in another recent thread. The nice ivory hilt is in alternative style from West Java/ North Coast/ East Java.
Regards

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, can you explain why you favour East Jawa for the scabbard?

Athanase tells us he put it together from two unrelated pieces, so both of these must be from East Jawa?

Personally I would have a lot of difficulty in placing a scabbard like this into any particular area. Javanese, certainly, but where in Jawa? Well somewhere that is not under the direct influence of a kraton. Who might have used such a scabbard? I think I'd probably be placing the original owner towards the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.

East Jawa does have some distinctive styles, but I would hesitate to include this scabbard amongst those styles.

[Athanase]

Thank you for this valuable information!

For the scabbard, the gambar was originally with another old Keris Segaluh blade, but it lacked the ganja (without gandar, without mendak nor handle).
For the gandar, which comes from a lot of spare pieces of scabbard.
The wood and the form is very similar to what I have more complete from Madura and East Java (and perhaps also central java) which are, in Europe, the most common origins of Kriss or their spare parts.