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30th March 2014, 06:50 PM
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#1 |
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30th March 2014, 10:41 PM
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#2 |
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Well often people who believe curators blindly are nearly as daft as those who believe arms dealers {or anyone else who works in sales, or has a vested interest that increases there personal wealth... secondhand car dealers, electrical goods salesmen etc.etc.}....{ Of course excluding & Excepting all respected members of this forum of course...
 }Here's a early & "rare antique Gurkha kukri" in a secure museum area, gifted to them by police who had seized it... Strange really it looks like 70s or 80s export crap to me...  But oddest of all is really, how scary & horror B movieish curators & police look together... spiral 
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31st March 2014, 03:30 PM
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#3 |
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Salaams... Indeed Museums do come in for a certain degree of poked fun.. however, such is the rarity of Kastane turning up early in UK circles that perhaps these are vintage Cromwellian, and though this tiny museum is on the fringe ... It does claim to be the Oliver Cromwell Museum... and artefacts in it appear to be from that period. If anyone is in the area... a quick visit may be suggested... apparently it is so small a half hour is sufficient to absorb the content. It would be interesting to discover the facts about these two Kastane... most peculiar ! It may be about to close... maybe they will sell the objects cheap...
Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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2nd April 2014, 06:58 PM
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#4 | |
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(deceased)
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 We sure have different perspectives, Jonathan; they look pathetic to me  .
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3rd April 2014, 04:20 PM
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#5 |
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Salaams all... Well that was an interesting interlude. Shall we bring the guns to bare on the main target ?... The Kastane .. I have tried in vain to raise the Cromwellian Museum but the curator was last seen carrying a huge bundle of swords in the direction of the local souk..."Any Old Iron" !! was his call...
 I consider decorative Kastane style here and bring another item of beautiful hand carved Ivory as a sample of excellent artesan production.. Here is an Ivory Sri Lankan box... hand carved in identical fashion to the swirls of the Makara tail often incorporated into Kastana hilts... The one with the Iconic Zoomorphic style is described as ~ Such cabinets were produced in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) off the western coast of India on commission from Portuguese traders for the European market by the mid 16th century. The shape and function are European, but the subject and style of the elaborate carving, including perforation of the ivory plaques that make it up, are characteristic of Ceylon. The plaques of ivory are carved in low relief, backed by sheets of tortoise shell and with silver fittings (corner pieces, rivets, key plates, original key and handles). On the front, the upper drawer is decorated with confronted lions spewing scrolls enclosed in borders of quatrefoils and beading; the lower two drawers have key plates and scrolling, with identical borders. On the sides are square central panels with winged leonine fantastic creatures with reptilian scaled tails (serapendiyas) enclosed in borders surrouned by scrolling and framed with borders. On the top are two confronted leonine creatures, similar to those on the sides, enclosed in beaded ovals and scrollwork, further enclosed in a border with outer scrolling and border. On the back is an oblong field with fragment of leonine creature enclosed in beaded frame with elaborate scrolling and border. The underside is composed of plain ivory. There is also a small section of border in the upper drawer. So as not to be out done by the Cromwellian Museum I also sourced a carving set with Lionesque Sri Lankan Icons for hilts...Maybe the hilts shown earlier were previously swords on 'Armour Cromwellian' after all !  Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 3rd April 2014 at 06:04 PM. |
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4th April 2014, 06:02 PM
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#6 |
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Decorative Style~ The Kastane.
Salaams all...
In observing further Kastane decorative style and refering to http://www.craftrevival.org/Extralin...ageCode=P00014 as a guide... perhaps the most relevant source of inspiration on design flows from the Piha Kheata form (both ways?) ...The two seem inextricably linked. Images from http://members.tripod.com/~images_of_ceylon/arms.html and http://www.caravanacollection.com/project/kastane-sword Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 4th April 2014 at 06:18 PM. |
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4th April 2014, 09:15 PM
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#7 | |
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Spiral |
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5th April 2014, 02:58 AM
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#8 |
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one of the images included by Ibrahiim in the collection of Ivory caskets is of particular interest and relevance in a different way to the topic in question- I quote from - “A catalogue of Antiquities and other cultural objects from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Abroad” - De Silva P.H.D.H.- Ivory casket no 1241 presently at Schatzkammer Der Residenz, Munich.
“In 1506 the Portuguese occupied Ceylon (“Sinhala Dvipa”) ; the island was then ruled by several kings, dominated by an Emperor. According to W. Sloman, Emperor Buwaneka Bahu (1521-51) did not want his brother Mayadunne but his grandson Dharmapala to become his successor. To receive the support of his fief master, the Portuguese King, for this plan, Buwaneka bahu sent in 1542 a delegation to Lisbon. There exists two descriptions about the delegation… According to one report (appr 1630) The delegate delivered two ivory statues, representing the emperor and the prince proposed for the succession to the throne; according to the other report (appr. 1687) the gifts presented to the Portuguese court consisted of a crown set with gems and a statue of massive gold representing Dharmapala (then about three years old) in natural height. after the fief -oath in effigy had been taken on behalf of this prince, Don Juan III of Portugal crowned the statue as a sign of acknowledgement of the succession to the throne” The Ivory casket illustrates the events in detail from the coronation of King Buwaneka bahu to birth of the prince Dharmapala (Dom Juan) to the bringing of the effigy of the prince to Portugal and the crowning of the statue by King of Portugal. The importance of this casket to the forum is in the depiction of many Sinhala arms including swords in a datable context at the time of the Portuguese wars and also coinciding or slightly predating with the time of the advent of the Kasthana as we know currently. yet no Kasthana swords can be observed in the collection depicted. even the royal sword used by King Buwanekabahu in his coronation seem to be a double edged blade of the common gladius type weapon of the time but longer. But it must be noted that the earliest specifically datable Kasthana swords are linked to the Mulleriyawela battle in 1559. The images are of poor quality- may I make a general appeal if any forum member in that part of the world is able to get access to the specimen that we may be able to get some better photographs of the Item. regards prasanna |
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5th April 2014, 03:03 AM
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#9 |
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missed one- the coronation of King Buwanekabahu
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5th April 2014, 05:58 PM
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#10 | |
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Salaams Prasanna, Thank you for your excellent addition to this thread. If I may... I would like to leave the idea of the weapons depicted til later... I need to research those and to see if the controlled artistic impression was such that only ancient weapons were depicted...and how or who would decide what weapons to show... I simply don't know. Perhaps it was purely traditional to show certain sword types but not others...? I have to say it was pure luck that I posted this casket though being a collector of such items I was very impressed by the craftsmanship and the striking similarities in design on Kastane... and in fact other weapons including the folliage effect carved into long guns at the butt. Fortuitously your post places the important battle of Mulleriyawela and as presented at http://www.mulleriyawa.org/EN/index.htm which inclues an interesting and atmospheric enacted series of fight scenes involving the Kastane etc. If the situation described is true it places that date as the earliest date of this weapons appearance and since it appears as an associated weapon of Angampora (Angagaratha herala), though, the battle was said to be circa 1560... if the weapon was from the Angampora stable it must have been more ancient; The martial arts of Sri Lanka go back around 30,000 years. I have difficulty trying to reconcile the weapon with anything European ...in particular Portuguese since they were the agressor\invader and a weapon such as the Kastane is associated with relatively high Sri Lankan historic and religious entity. It simply makes no sense to either design a weapon and\or give it a Portuguese name when it held such a place of high esteem inside the Sri Lankan psyche. My take on this sword (though I cannot rule out influence) is that it gets its design from an ancient Sri Lankan group of decorations and ideas though perhaps fused with something the Moors /traders imported earlier or which difused regionally...but from which direction? There are powerful suggestions that Javanese hilts have a place in the story (not to mention the broad effects from decorative Buddhist and Hindu form via India etc). Further , that through the martial arts system this style has been rooted in Sri Lankan history long before the entry by the first colonial power, The Portuguese, entered the equation. I think we are now pressing hard on the Kastane origin of species though it may never be fully uncovered. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 5th April 2014 at 06:10 PM. |
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7th April 2014, 08:15 AM
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#11 |
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[QUOTE=Prasanna Weerakkody]
yet no Kasthana swords can be observed in the collection depicted. even the royal sword used by King Buwanekabahu in his coronation seem to be a double edged blade of the common gladius type weapon of the time but longer. Salaams Prasanna ~ I note all you say regarding this group of gifts ... and have one question regarding the absence of the Kastane.. As in the depiction of many carvings either in Ivory or stone I notice that only the ancient forms are presented. This is certainly the case in Indian statues and scenes and I believe this was because each God presented had His / Her own weapon thus it was always illustrated as such. Was this not the same in Sri Lankan carving practice? Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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11th April 2014, 03:35 PM
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#12 | ||
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(deceased)
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Still Alain Manneson Mallet in 'de l'Asie' section of his work dated 1683, depicts the King of Ceylon with a sword in nothing similar to a Kasthana; this considering that Khastanas belonged in the attire of Sinhalese novelty. Naturaly the author may be drawing the sword from his free mind, but when one looks at the depictions of Portuguese and Spanish Kings, details look pretty faithful. . |
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5th April 2014, 05:15 PM
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#13 | |
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If, however, you have any evidence to prove that they (in either case) are not, please go ahead and outline the details. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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4th April 2014, 09:08 PM
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#14 | |
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Fair enough Fernando! You brave hero! I can just imagine booking into a rural hotel, on a stormy night that these 3 run, but I guess you haven't seen the old English hammer house of horror b movies.. No real loss. But of course it may just be your brave Mediterranean machismo that would deal with the potential Perverted cannibal zombie vampires without even a slight hastening of the heart beat. spiral |
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