Why and What We Collect--A Tale of Two Barung

[Ian]

As expected, the responses so far have been varied and somewhat in favor of the older, and perhaps more refined, example. However, I'm also hearing some compulsive/impulsive urges to collecting that I think probably infect all of us from time to time. Of course, those who visit this site and comment are probably the most hopelessly addicted cases anyway.

While I did not mean this thread to be about the technical aspects of the barung, but rather to use the two examples shown as a talking point about collecting, I will answer Barry's and Detlef's points about the age of Item 2. Robert Cato's book is a useful guide in this regard. He notes:

"Usually only the bottom third of antique tagub [scabbards] were wrapped with cane bindings. It appears that the Sulus altered this practice around the time of the Second World War, when they began to wrap their scabbards from top to bottom." (R. Cato, op. cit., p. 44)

If we look at the pictures of the tagub of Item 2, note the almost complete wrapping of the scabbard with fine strands of cane. (I think it is likely that this one was totally wrapped at one time and has lost some of the wrapping.) This would place it WWII or later. Also, the winding of fine cane around the scabbard in this manner seemed to become much more prevalent post-WWII, compared with plaited strands or somewhat wider cane strips on earlier pieces. However, the point noted by Cato seems to be the best indicator of period for the tagub.

Ian.