Cast bronze hilt

sirek · 11th December 2022, 03:32 PM

Hello everyone,
A Balinese hilt of copper over wood I have seen quite often (picture 1)
but now i have a hilt of cast bronze weight 400 gr/14,2OZ/0.888LB (seems very heavy to me for a hilt) the previous owner owned it for about 50 years. Is this a rarity?, or do you see this more often? I had never seen a hilt of solid bronze?

David · 11th December 2022, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirek

Hello everyone,
A Balinese hilt of copper over wood I have seen quite often (picture 1)
but now i have a hilt of cast bronze weight 400 gr/14,2OZ/0.888LB (seems very heavy to me for a hilt) the previous owner owned it for about 50 years. Is this a rarity?, or do you see this more often? I had never seen a hilt of solid bronze?

I can't say that i have seen one of these created in cast bronze before either. So i do suppose in that sense we could consider this a "rarity". The better question though might be "is it desirable"? For myself, with admittedly little experience with a hilt of this type, i would say probably not. The weight of the hilt alone might be enough of a discouragement for me. I would think that when we see this style of hilt created in lesser materials like this we are looking at hilts that were made to mimic more elaborate court examples of gold and silver. And this is not a particular good or finely detailed example of a bronze casting. It does appear to have some age, but i think it is more likely vintage rather than antique. I'm not really sure what market or strata of society such a hilt would originally have been created for.

GIO · 12th December 2022, 05:54 PM

The Etnology museum in Leiden has a keris with a similar hilt, but made of brass instead of bronze. The aspect is clearly that of a cast object, not that of an embossed metal sheet. Obviously this kind of hilts can be considered a rarity, because of the weight and consequent unbalance of the keris and the difficulty of melting the material. Enclosed please find a scanned photo of low quality because of the big size of the book.

GIO · 12th December 2022, 06:03 PM

Sorry for the upside-down image

GIO · 12th December 2022, 06:10 PM

Please apologize, I cannot fix the problem

kai · 12th December 2022, 10:18 PM

There are genuine hilts cast from bronze/brass. I haven't seen any solid ones - only with fillers like clay or cutler's resin.

The one shown in the first posting apparently was never in use (obstructed pesi hole; freshly cut base after casting); it also exhibits casting flaws at the front which (in addition to its heavy weight) make a real use as hilt unlikely IMHO.

From the pic, the one from Leiden does not look like a high quality example either (again, IMHO).

Regards,
Kai

kai · 12th December 2022, 10:22 PM

And Gio's pic from Leiden for better viewing...

sirek · 13th December 2022, 06:27 PM

thanks for your comments,
the strange thing for me was that casting bronze is not easy and is quite expensive.
And a traditional hilt maker is not familiar with this, so I thought maybe it was made by one of the local statue makers?

11th December 2022, 03:32 PM	#1
sirek Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 171	Cast bronze hilt Hello everyone, A Balinese hilt of copper over wood I have seen quite often (picture 1) but now i have a hilt of cast bronze weight 400 gr/14,2OZ/0.888LB (seems very heavy to me for a hilt) the previous owner owned it for about 50 years. Is this a rarity?, or do you see this more often? I had never seen a hilt of solid bronze? Attached Images

12th December 2022, 05:54 PM	#3
GIO Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 331	The Etnology museum in Leiden has a keris with a similar hilt, but made of brass instead of bronze. The aspect is clearly that of a cast object, not that of an embossed metal sheet. Obviously this kind of hilts can be considered a rarity, because of the weight and consequent unbalance of the keris and the difficulty of melting the material. Enclosed please find a scanned photo of low quality because of the big size of the book. Attached Images

12th December 2022, 06:03 PM	#4
GIO Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 331	Sorry for the upside-down image Attached Images Last edited by David; 13th December 2022 at 04:45 PM.

12th December 2022, 10:22 PM	#7
kai Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3,255	And Gio's pic from Leiden for better viewing... Attached Images

12th December 2022, 06:10 PM	#5
GIO Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 331	Please apologize, I cannot fix the problem

12th December 2022, 10:18 PM	#6
kai Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3,255	There are genuine hilts cast from bronze/brass. I haven't seen any solid ones - only with fillers like clay or cutler's resin. The one shown in the first posting apparently was never in use (obstructed pesi hole; freshly cut base after casting); it also exhibits casting flaws at the front which (in addition to its heavy weight) make a real use as hilt unlikely IMHO. From the pic, the one from Leiden does not look like a high quality example either (again, IMHO). Regards, Kai

13th December 2022, 06:27 PM	#8
sirek Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 171	thanks for your comments, the strange thing for me was that casting bronze is not easy and is quite expensive. And a traditional hilt maker is not familiar with this, so I thought maybe it was made by one of the local statue makers?