Rencong out of the collection of Henri de Chauvigny de Blot, commissioner of Madura

[Maurice]

Because of the two threads of Danny's Tombaks, I thought it was nice to
add my piece I acquired out of the same collection, which were brought back from the Dutch Indies in 1902 to the Netherlands, and sold recently by the heir of the late commissioner of Madura, Henri de Chauvigny de Blot.
According the sayings of the heir (who had no knowledge at all about these and wasn't very fond of these "weapons", because he was a vicar) it was a very large collection, and my rencong and the two lances Danny got where amongst the last 5 items of the whole lot.

The heir sold everything allready earlier, but he did find these 5 afterwards still on the attic, and we could be lucky to grab these, besides a peudeung with golden cap and gemstones & a rencong with ivory handle, which unfortunately were sold very fast to somebody else.
So as a matter of fact we got the three last pieces out of this big old collection. I wonder how the rest must be looking like?

Here the links to the threads of the lances:
A: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13555

B: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13557

Images of the rencong of the seller's.

[danny1976]

Hi Maurice ,

Great idey to start this thread !
Lets hope other dutchman that bought pieces of this collection wil join
in with pictures .

About youre rencong , its real old and untouched so you wil for sure enjoy working on it .

About the personal delivering ...maybe it won,t be coffee alone but also
dinner The planned a extra meeting from my work that day
So i will come,l but probaly later in the day .

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by danny1976

Lets hope other dutchman that bought pieces of this collection wil join in with pictures .

Somehow I don't think that would happen. :-(

Originally Posted by danny1976

About the personal delivering ...maybe it won,t be coffee alone but also
dinner The planned a extra meeting from my work that day
So i will come,l but probaly later in the day .

No problem!

[asomotif]

Hi Maurice,

Nice rentjong with a nice provenance.
Lucky Danny that he went there and was able to purchase the 2 lances.

Your rentjong has a interesting scabbard which is very rounded on the bottom.
I owned a similar one years ago which is depicted in Jean Greffioz' book The Kris.

Love to see better pictures after cleaning.
Especially of the scabbard and it's carvings.


Best regards,
Willem

[Spunjer]

did he have any moro stuff?

[Gavin Nugent]

Congrats Maurice,

Another well provenanced item for your growing collections of well provenanced items....are there any left at home that don't come with this aspect of collecting.

Gav

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Nice rentjong with a nice provenance.
Lucky Danny that he went there and was able to purchase the 2 lances.

Your rentjong has a interesting scabbard which is very rounded on the bottom.
I owned a similar one years ago which is depicted in Jean Greffioz' book The Kris.

Love to see better pictures after cleaning.
Especially of the scabbard and it's carvings.

Thank you Willem! Yes those two lances of Danny are great. But if I can recall the images well, they looked as poorly on the seller's images as my rencong. So great to see them both cleaned up.

Indeed I noticed the "strange" round scabbard at the bottom. I won't clean it to much, just pick off the dirt and slightly etch the blade.
Thank you for your picture of the one you owned with similar scabbardtip.
I'll post images when it's here and I find some time in cleaning it..

Originally Posted by spunjer

did he have any moro stuff?

Ron I've no idea! But it would surprise me a little if it were. Very hard to find moro stuff here around from old Dutch collections. The Dutch unfortunately didn't cross the sea from Borneo to the Philippines to get some for me. Maybe the moro's were to fierce?

Originally Posted by freebooter

Congrats Maurice,
Another well provenanced item for your growing collections of well provenanced items....are there any left at home that don't come with this aspect of collecting.

Thanks Gav!
Yes the provenance makes such poor piece absolutely interesting for me! I hope I can give it a better life when cleaned up.
I have some left without provenance...


Thanks all,
Maurice

[Sajen]

Hi Maurice,

congratulation for one more very nice addition to your collection with great provenance. I am curious to see the rentjong cleaned up.

Regards,

Detlef

[Mytribalworld]

hi , below some google results,

Naam: Henri de*Chauvigny*de*Blot
Geslacht: M
Overlijdensdatum: 09-02-1929
Leeftijd: 75
Overlijdensplaats: Utrecht

vader
Naam: Frederik Ditloff de*Chauvignyde*Blot

moeder
Naam: Johanna Hendrika de Brauw

partner
Naam: Marie Elisabeth Wilhelmina Heijligers
Relatie: echtgenote van

its most likely that he was writer at the court before he became resident of Madura
google his title below and you will see more hits

H. de*Chauvigny de Blot,*Buitengew. substit.-griffier

[Maurice]

Here some images of the rencong cleaned up.
The iron wire had been taken off the scabbard (cause they seem to wrapped around there for no use, and they were very rusty).
The scabbard had been cleaned, and the dark rustspots removed from the blade.
Also, as hoped for, the scabbard has nice floral motifs, but only very superficial because of wear because of handling and age..

PS: I found out that the father of Henri, called Frederik Ditloff de Chauvigny de Blot (as Arjan stated in his post), was assistant commissioner on Java, and died in 1914 on an age of 90 years.
So there might be a reasonable chance that Frederik was a collector as well, or was "the only" collector and Henri was his heir.
That would make the items even older as I even thought... ;-)

[VVV]

Nice work and a nice provenance!!!

Michael

[Maurice]

Here some images of the floral decoration on the scabbard, as far as I was able to get them visible on the photo...

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by VVV

Nice work and a nice provenance!!!

Michael

Thank you Michael, but I'm not the only one to get the credit for it.
I did the cleaning job of the scabbard (only with warm water and a sponge to remove the worst dirt), and beneath the dirt a very "unfledged" scabbard appeared (to my fright).
Fortunately Arjan was so kind to transform the scabbard for me to the result as it is now.

Maurice

[Battara]

Yes to take dirt off but not patina is difficult work!

[Sajen]

Nicely done!

Regards,

Detlef

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Battara

Yes to take dirt off but not patina is difficult work!

Jose, I think impossible to my piece, cause I only used water and a sponge....

or....

do you have any additional tips for maybe next time I end up in a similar situation?

[Battara]

For just the dirt soap and water is fine. Anything abrasive will take off the patina.