Interesting odd klewang at eBay

[RhysMichael]

Just my thoughts. The blade on here strongly reminds me of the blades on Aceh peudeueng peusangan( aka sikin peusangan, sikin pasagan ). Compare these two





Of course the handle is very different. I would like to hear if others see the resemblance in the blade or not


The hilt does have some resemblance to a hulu tapa guda. You can see on on D. Buttins site here : http://old.blades.free.fr/pics/picsw...ang/kle03p.jpg
And the tulip bud is a common motif in Aceh art, many of the other carvings shown also resemble motifs and designs seen in "Hands of Time - Crafts of Aceh" by Barbara Leigh. Of course there are many other places in the region that use similar designs. That being said I think there is a strong case to be made for it being an Aceh sword

[VVV]

Thanks RhysMichael,

Very resembling blade.
So back again to Aceh origin...

Michael

[kai]

Thanks for the reminder, John!

http://home.comcast.net/~jtcrosby/Aceh.html

Originally Posted by RhysMichael

Just my thoughts. The blade on here strongly reminds me of the blades on Aceh peudeueng peusangan( aka sikin peusangan, sikin pasagan ).

That's surely the strongest contender so far - especially the deep fuller is very convincing in my eyes (the tip configuration seems only slightly different). Is this your piece or can you please inquire wether the false edge is sharpened?

Of course the handle is very different.

Could be an ideosyncracy or more likely some "unknown" variety which just didn't make it into the textbooks. Could also be an transplated blade which got rehilted by a different group but this seems quite unlikely given the rarity of this blade variant in the first place...

I would like to hear if others see the resemblance in the blade or not

Sure, good one! I have only seen these blades with the the usual tip more akin to a peudeung/sikin panjang tip.

The hilt does have some resemblance to a hulu tapa guda. You can see on on D. Buttins site here : http://old.blades.free.fr/pics/picsw...ang/kle03p.jpg

There is some semblance (some exmples even have a distinct central protrusion) and, more vaguely, to the hulu cangge gliwang and hulu iku ite. I think this hilt could very well have evolved within northern Sumatra (without having a definite extant ancestor). However, similar hilts pop up far and wide over the archipelago and are not restricted to Sumatra.

That being said I think there is a strong case to be made for it being an Aceh sword

Northern Sumatra seems to be a good guess (including other kingdoms and possibly even some Batak regions).

Regards,
Kai

[RhysMichael]

Is this your piece or can you please inquire wether the false edge is sharpened ?

Yes it is mine. It is not sharpened but it is nearly so. The false edge goes down almost to a sharpe edge. I will post a picture of this later

[Ian]

John:

Agree. Those blades look very similar. Appears to be a distinct type of sword that is very uncommon.

The"bud" at the end of the hilt -- could that be a lotus flower? If so, does that give a clue to which tribal group might have such a motif? I don't recall a lotus symbol being used widely in Isalmic art. More likely Buddhist, but then that does not fit well with Sumatra.

Interesting.

Ian

[RhysMichael]

Originally Posted by Ian

John:


The"bud" at the end of the hilt -- could that be a lotus flower? If so, does that give a clue to which tribal group might have such a motif? I don't recall a lotus symbol being used widely in Isalmic art. More likely Buddhist, but then that does not fit well with Sumatra.

Interesting.

Ian

Ian
Hindu and Buddist influences were noted to be in Aceh as early as the first century AD. From what I can find there is still a great deal of this seen in their arts and crafts. Several things about that and the design fit with this. Barbara Leigh describes the motifs falling into 5 categories:geometric, vegetable life, bird life, other faunal life and islamic motifs. The casusarona seed, lotus , and bamboo playing prominant roles in the vegetative motifs. The way the designs are separated by border into the separate motifs also fit in with what has been called "a grammer of design", is a characteristic in Indonesian art. Thats a great thought about the style pinning it down to a certain tribal group. That may take someone on the ground there to find out. I do not know of any references that would give us this information. But I have found few that give much specific information on these swords.
Here are the pictures of the sword tip. The blade is positioned edge up false edge down.





As to this syle of blade here is one that Therion used to have I do not know if he still does
http://www.therionarms.com/pictures/sikkin.jpg
This one is in the KIT, in Holland
http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/...peudeueng1.bmp

Again to whoever got this sword congratualtions on a good sword at a very good price. I would have gone much above this if it was not Christmas and all my funds tied up for that.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by RhysMichael

Ian
Hindu and Buddist influences were noted to be in Aceh as early as the first century AD. From what I can find there is still a great deal of this seen in their arts and crafts. Several things about that and the design fit with this. Barbara Leigh describes the motifs falling into 5 categories:geometric, vegetable life, bird life, other faunal life and islamic motifs. The casusarona seed, lotus , and bamboo playing prominant roles in the vegetative motifs. The way the designs are separated by border into the separate motifs also fit in with what has been called "a grammer of design", is a characteristic in Indonesian art. Thats a great thought about the style pinning it down to a certain tribal group. That may take someone on the ground there to find out. I do not know of any references that would give us this information. But I have found few that give much specific information on these swords.
Here are the pictures of the sword tip. The blade is positioned edge up false edge down.





As to this syle of blade here is one that Therion used to have I do not know if he still does
http://www.therionarms.com/pictures/sikkin.jpg
This one is in the KIT, in Holland
http://img32.photobucket.com/albums/...peudeueng1.bmp

Again to whoever got this sword congratualtions on a good sword at a very good price. I would have gone much above this if it was not Christmas and all my funds tied up for that.

This is a thread I missed. Great stuff, John. Thanks.