VOC BLADES: A comprehensive look

[Maurice]

Hello Kai,

I understand what's your point here, and I agree about that!

Originally Posted by kai

I believe these are quite widespread: I've seen several out of Sumatra and also central Java.

They are certainly widespread, but most of the time it is a select kind of swords which have those VOC blades. Like the Timor swords, or the Preanger gobangs (Central Javanese), or the Bandjermasin area.

Originally Posted by kai

I am not sure what kind of provenance would be needed for an ethnographic combo to prove the point? Even when registered into any European nobility collection during the VOC period, this still could be a local "fake" of a possibly respected quality mark.

If it was local, I think it would have been done another way. They would not use these kind of stamps to mark the blades, but it would be a more elegently and smoothly writing/decoration in the blade.

Originally Posted by kai

I know that real VOC swords are a kind of holy grail of Dutch/international military sword collectors and there certainly are a lot of fakes on the market.

Yes, I hope to have one in future myself. But first want to do more research.

Originally Posted by kai

very valuable would be marks from genuine VOC swords - there must be a few in Dutch musea? If we were to come across VOC marks on obviously locally crafted blades, these would make a good comparision, too! This may be a bit like reverse engineering - let's give it a try though!

I will try finding some genuine VOC swords. But the ones I've seen in Dutch museums didn't had the VOC mark. Though I've seen one in the former Legermuseum in Delft, but don't know anymore what the provenance of that sword was.

Originally Posted by kai

Will try to load up some examples in the following days if time permits.

OK let's make this a project of us all! Add images, even without provenance, to discuss and compare, for the moment we will find a good provenanced old genuine one.

Regards,
Maurice