Ethnographic Arms & Armour - Blocky Hilted Badik for ID

I suppose I will let the cat out of the bag and let you all know that I'm currently working on a new exhibition which will present the weapons collections of the old Raffles Library and Museum Collections. The show is slated to go up in September this year and will be up for about 6 months so if you’re thinking of travelling to or through Singapore you might think of coming around that time-period. It’ll be pretty low budget and straightforward but I hope it will bring out many, if not all, of the most interesting things in the collection.

Anyway, I thought I would start throwing out some teasers to see whether you all can help me to better pin down some of these pieces. Unfortunately, the old museum records are rarely as clear or as detailed as you would imagine and actually, very few pieces are accessioned with clear and detailed information about where they came from and when they were made (even approximately).

Anyway, let’s start with this interesting and rather uncommon badik. It was probably acquired in the 1960s or 70s w/o any provenance.

[IMG]XXXX-04499.jpg[/IMG]

There are several very close examples on Artzi's site including one which has been sold and is now in a collection with which I am intimately familiar with ;)

[IMG]Badik 01.jpg[/IMG]

The other two are unsold so I won't put the images up here (rules is rules) but you can go to his site and find them easily enough in the section on Indonesia/Philippines pieces.

Artzi gives the provenance of these as Java, based, I'm assuming on comparison with three examples listed in Van Zonneveld (correct me if I'm wrong here Artzi), but IMO these are rather different from those in the book and Van Z himself puts a (?) on them, which suggests he too doubts that provenance. Artzi, perhaps you could reveal whether these came from UK or Dutch sources, or if you have any other special information about them which might help point us in the right direction (or at least in some direction).

To me these look and feel (taste?) Sumatran. The blades are Bugis style but of a look and feel that is common across much of the areas where the Bugis Diaspora moved. Our museum's example does have the remnants of some gilding and lacquer on the sheath which hints perhaps at Palembang. Also, all the examples cited have kemuning hilts, which is very Malay, and not very Javanese.

Anyway, if any of you has an opinion, or if you know of provenanced examples in the literature or in other museum collections, or could shed some further light on these, your input would be appreciated.