Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge on this issue, Boedhi Adhitya.
We had almost given up hope of anyone discussing authoritatively on this issue.
The inverted pictures threw me off, and it took me a while before I realized what was wrong with them. I was surprised that they allowed these kerises to be published. There was an equivalent book published on the Surakarta kraton, and I noticed there were no direct pictures of the kraton's kerises, as expected.
I agree with your last remark - that there is more than meets the eye to the Sultan's keris, hence, I placed the word 'unspectacular' in quotation marks. The keris occupies both the seen and unseen world.
It is interesting to note that the Sultan's personal collection is not equivalent to the Court's collection. Is that to say that the Sultan's personal collection may sometimes hold kerises that do not pass the Court's standards for judging keris? (For example if the Sultan liked a certain keris that do not meet the Court's standard, but he acquired it anyway?)
Thank you.