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Originally Posted by VANDOO
IT WAS ON SKINNERS AUCTION I DIDN'T BID ON IT AND DIDN'T GET ANYTHING FROM THE AUCTION BUT SAVED THE PICTURE TO POST HERE FOR DISCUSSION AS IT WAS UNUSUAL. THE HANDLE LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THE BALINESE TYPES WITH HAIR STICKING OUT, WE DISCUSSED THEM IN A OLD THREAD AND I HAVE ONLY SEEN THEM COMING OUT OF BALI.
I WISH I DID HAVE THAT ONE RICK BUT THERE WERE OTHER ITEMS AT THE AUCTION THAT WERE MORE ATTRACTIVE TO ME, IT WOULD APPEAR THAT I COLLECT PICTURES OF WEAPONS MOSTLY THESE DAYS BUT KEEP TRYING AND DO GET LUCKY OCCASIONALY.
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In this case you were right on. The other side of the handle had a big piece missing. Many of the pieces were damaged. There was a Balato sword (the one without the ball) that had the handle completely broken off. Laying beside the sword on the table with a lot of other pieces.
There was a nice Balinese keris with an ivory wrongko that was completely apart. Wrongko over there, pendok beside it and blade with handle beside it. I asked the workers why they left it that way and they said they did not know how it should be out together.
They did not display the actual item when the auctioneer was callling, just a picture on a monitor.
I would venture to say that there may be some unhappy people when they get their items. Hope they do a good job of packing and shipping mine. I am a bit apprehensive.
Let me hasten to say that there were many nice ivory carvings that they took very good care to preserve. The good stuff was behind glass. You had to ask to handle a piece and there were a couple of quiet guys in suits with earpieces and the curly wires going down into their collars, watching.
It was mainly the "tribal" pieces that were piled on tables. They were not that expert in 'tribal.' For instance the Skinner expert thought that the Batak were from Borneo. But his specialty was probably other areas, Don't see why he tried to pretend to know everything. But I guess that is how it is.
All in all Skinner is a good auction house, but this auction was for Asian art, not edged weapons. Saw a cup carved from a rhino horn bring $37,500.