Tjikeroeh swords

[ausjulius]

the markings are talismanic, and can be taken with a grain of salt,
they are markings mimicing various dutch weapons local blacksmiths inspected.. dutch colonial officials were issued with european made modern weapons,
indonesian people wanted to emulate dutch fashion and style.. additional the dutch colonies there had a rather large european population who would be active customers buying souvineers or a knife to use locally. but for the most part these were made for the indonesia population. there probably examples of dutch aquiring local blades in situaitons when it was expediant but this was not the norm.
these european-malay hybrid knives and swords are far more common in indonesia than they are in holland, i have collected a good number over the years when travelling there.. including a copy of one of those german checkered handled "machetes" used in aircraft in ww2 which makes me think those wer eprobably a colonial product destined for the far east or another region that were pressed into service.