My Grandfathers Keris

[David]

Originally Posted by KellykellyDonovan

I posted this keris in some Facebook groups in Indonesia and I got many many private offers to buy it. I was trying to gather information and piece together from each person I talked to about it, and I got conflicting opinions and of course that was to be expected but I was told the name of the Mpu they thought it was more than once was the Name Brojokaryo. And more of those guys tended to think it was a PB IV era. I’m curious to whether it may have some of the meteoritic iron allotted to the royal courts because of the Keleng Pamor. My intelligence gathering from speaking to the Indonesians on Facebook they said it’s a rare shape super Langka is what they used to describe it, and tried to explain it is not a Keris a common person could afford to have made etc. this is the toughest item from my grandfathers collection I’ve had with research. I’m stuck on the vz22 bayonets if thats what they are, and I have two German swords from pre ww2. Aside from that I’m afraid to ship it anywhere over seas to have a Waranga done to it, and I haven’t found anyone in USA that can help me with that

Well yes, you certainly did find some conflicted "infomation" on Facebook, which is not surprising. Firstly i would say that identifying an empu by a few photos of the internet is a pretty difficult task. Empu Brojokaryo was a legendary empu from the reign of Pakubuwono I, which would have been very early 18th century. Pakubuwono IV would have been the end of the 18th century into the early 19th century. I would say it is more likely your keris is klate 19th century
The likelihood of there being meteoric content in this blade is next to nil. On the rare occasion that meteorite is used in keris it is part pf the pamor mix. Kelengan keris are without pamor.
"Langka" simply means "rare", but i don't see this keris as being a particular rare example. As Alan has already stated, it is a decent keris, but not a paticularly high end one. I seriously doubt it has any royal connection or was created by a legendary empu. It does not contain meteorite, nor is it particularly rare. It is a decent, collectable example that could be a nice addition to a collections with a little TLC. I would say that give it is kelengan there is not real reason to give the blade a stain with warangan since it is unlikely that any pamor pattern is to be found.
I am a bit confused about what kind of response you are hoping for from this last post, but if you ask some more specific questions we might be able to help you. But my first advice would be to ignore the contradicting noise you have been told on Facebook.