Lovely and Unique Indonesian Sewar

[kai]

Hello Charles,

Congrats, that's a really rare, nice piece!

Here is nice old sewar I picked up with a very good provenance dating from a collection started in 1890, and ended in 1920.

Any more details?

It is a wooden hilt with a wooden inlay of some sort at the end with the same material making tiny "teardrops" on each side.

This pommel is made from high-quality wood. It has lost the typical gold disk on top of the pommel and the traditional gold "bracket" which helps to secure the disk (these are fixed on the side of the pommel and the holes filled here with the "tear drop" inlay).

The hilt rests on a low-grade gold and enameled series of four "crowns" which is attached to a solid swassa bolster.

Usually these gold crowns have a rather high gold content - I'd recommend to have it tested!

The crowns look very nice. Could you post close-ups with higher resolution, please?

The scabbard features an elongated mouth with a gold finial. This may have been decorative, but often when a finial of this type is seen it has been created to cover damage or repaired damage. I do not know the case here.

Tough to tell from the pics - the odds will mostly depend on the quality of the work!

Silver bands are very common later add-ons when a worn scabbard needs added stability.

Regards,
Kai