Identify a Keris

[A. G. Maisey]

David & Detlef are right on the mark, but I would be inclined to call this a Central Javanese keris, dressed in the style of Solo, this is only playing with words, but when we use "Surakarta" we are implying a degree of refinement. Surakarta Hadiningrat is the name of the Karaton, the "place of the Ratu", Ratu meaning "ruler", and Surakarta was established near the village of Solo.

A lot of Central Jawa comes under the influence of Solo and of the Surakarta Karaton.

This is a rather humble keris, but it has the potential to be brought to a good level of presentation. The hilt is too far gone for acceptable restoration, but the scabbard (wrongko) is really quite nice, it is not the normal everyday gayaman form, I'd need it in my hand to be definite, but from the photo it looks like a Gayaman Ladrang or possibly a Gayaman Kagok Bancihan. It looks as if it could come up pretty nice.

The pendok could be improved a bit, but really, its not too bad as it is.

The hilt and hilt ring (mendak) should be replaced.

The blade does have pamor wos wutah, but in a blade of this class it is likely to be pamor sanak, which means that the material used to create the pamor is various forms of ferric material, unlikely to be any nickel or high contrast material in this blade.

All in all, this is a pretty decent example of this class of keris, absolutely worth spending time on restoration, and absolutely worth a place in a collection.