[A. G. Maisey]

I guess that the most accurate answer to this is "experience":- if somebody has seen literally thousands of blades of various types with this style of construction, they usually form an opinion almost instantly on the perceived age. With some things this becomes more difficult, most especially from photos, & I doubt that it would be possible to set forth any sort of formula that could guide age assessment, but there are tells that can help to form an opinion.

With this item under discussion we have a knife that is in absolutely perfect condition, it has been subjected to an aging process, but only a very light aging process; the colour of the materials is in accordance with what we expect from a more recent blade; the cutting edge shows no erosion at all, whilst the form is true to original, there does not appear to have been any blade renovation. Based upon what can be seen in the photo this blade could be anywhere between 150 years old & 3 days old, this type of thing is still made today. In the hand it might be possible to get a tighter fix on age, from a photo this not possible.

In short, it looks very recent.

The gold work is a generic design that is quite common across Indonesia, the triangles are what we call "tumpal" --- it might be of interest to research this motif, it is important --- the tendrils and other design elements occur again & again across many regions.

Yes, there is certainly a lot of Chinese influence in the Archipelago, a very great deal of Chinese influence in Jawa, Bali, Sumatera.

This influence occurred in multiple ways, in many places, at all levels of society and over a very long period of time. However, the evidence of this influence is now well & truly integrated into the societies concerned.

To try to identify what is of Chinese origin, & what is of some other origin is perhaps a slightly misleading exercise at this point in time. What happens in modern Indonesia, and in all of the places that are now Indonesia but were previously regarded as separate but related entities, was & is that the, for example, Javanese society accepts, or has accepted, the outside input, assimilates it, modifies it to harmonise with the existing societal elements, and makes it Javanese, or Balinese, or whatever.

This applies in many fields, including art.

The concept of "recent" varies and is decidedly subjective, it depends upon many factors, but with items such as this knife it can be understood as an opinion that the blade & the scabbard are not old, only the handle shows evidence of age. This of course generates the question of what "old" means, & that is again a subjective matter. I guess it all comes back to having a good understanding of the related field of knowledge.

For example, if we consider the Javanese keris, most Javanese keris authorities regard keris made from the time of the second kingdom of Mataram through to now to be "new" keris. So, in this case that "recent" idea might be thought of as extending over several hundred years, but is a 300 year old keris "recent" as well as "new" , I rather think not, so this comes down to an expert appraisal of the actual item concerned:- is it 3 years old or 300 years old? Like many other skills, appraisal of keris & other SE Asian blades requires time & experience to learn & it cannot be turned into a formula that can be applied by anybody who has not had the requisite training.

The gold work is not inlay, it is kinatah, a form of ornamentation that can be applied in several ways, but is similar in appearance to Indian koftgari work.