Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 12th November 2016, 11:14 PM

Gustav, I do agree with your stylistic analysis, but I tend to disagree with your conclusion.

My feeling, and it is a feeling, rather than a defensible opinion, is that we are looking at a dealer's montage,

OR

and this is big "OR", something that has been put together from bits and pieces in Indonesia, by an Indonesian, for use.

Over the years I've seen a lot of married daggers and swords, often with quite good age, but with a mix of component parts, I have seldom bought these things, but the fact remains that parts of weapons travel, and when they get somewhere that somebody wants to use them, they get re-assembled.

I saw a wonderful example of this a few years ago, it had been brought back by a WWII soldier from a little village on the North Coast of Sumatera, it was a keris, and every single part of it came from a different place. There was a story with it, that unusual for me, I was prepared to accept at face value. Very briefly, the soldier was trying to get across Sumatera from Singapore after Singapore fell, he got to this little fishing village, where the village leader gave him food and shelter, he stayed there for a while, and during his stay the village leader's daughter, or wife (unclear which) fell ill, and the soldier was able to cure her. When he left to move on, the village leader gave him the parting gift of this mix & match keris.

The thing is this:- people in Indonesia do not waste anything, and if they get bits and pieces of something from a different area from where they live, they use those things --- blade from here, hilt from there, make the ferrule, repair a scabbard from somewhere else --- and what you finish up with is a mix of parts that simply cannot be put into the context of one location.

Where a kraton has influence over an area, people tend to pretty much follow the dress dictates of that kraton, but the further you get from this sort of influence, the more people go their own way.

On the subject of dealers' montages. During the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's there was a major --- and I mean MAJOR --- English antiques and weapons dealer who had a factory that was devoted to the production of antique weapons from genuine and false antique parts. These were then sold through both the dealer's shopfront, and through auction. There's a lot of stuff out there that gives a very good impression of being genuine, but is not so.

12th November 2016, 11:14 PM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,991	Gustav, I do agree with your stylistic analysis, but I tend to disagree with your conclusion. My feeling, and it is a feeling, rather than a defensible opinion, is that we are looking at a dealer's montage, OR and this is big "OR", something that has been put together from bits and pieces in Indonesia, by an Indonesian, for use. Over the years I've seen a lot of married daggers and swords, often with quite good age, but with a mix of component parts, I have seldom bought these things, but the fact remains that parts of weapons travel, and when they get somewhere that somebody wants to use them, they get re-assembled. I saw a wonderful example of this a few years ago, it had been brought back by a WWII soldier from a little village on the North Coast of Sumatera, it was a keris, and every single part of it came from a different place. There was a story with it, that unusual for me, I was prepared to accept at face value. Very briefly, the soldier was trying to get across Sumatera from Singapore after Singapore fell, he got to this little fishing village, where the village leader gave him food and shelter, he stayed there for a while, and during his stay the village leader's daughter, or wife (unclear which) fell ill, and the soldier was able to cure her. When he left to move on, the village leader gave him the parting gift of this mix & match keris. The thing is this:- people in Indonesia do not waste anything, and if they get bits and pieces of something from a different area from where they live, they use those things --- blade from here, hilt from there, make the ferrule, repair a scabbard from somewhere else --- and what you finish up with is a mix of parts that simply cannot be put into the context of one location. Where a kraton has influence over an area, people tend to pretty much follow the dress dictates of that kraton, but the further you get from this sort of influence, the more people go their own way. On the subject of dealers' montages. During the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's there was a major --- and I mean MAJOR --- English antiques and weapons dealer who had a factory that was devoted to the production of antique weapons from genuine and false antique parts. These were then sold through both the dealer's shopfront, and through auction. There's a lot of stuff out there that gives a very good impression of being genuine, but is not so.