Running wolf on Timor sword

Jim McDougall · 29th October 2024, 02:52 PM

This is MOST interesting! and while technically 'ethnographic' (as the sword as mounted is) the blade is of course a Solingen type blade of the 18th c.
It seems the blade may have had the point rebated into the chopper type blades favored in these archipelagos of the East Indies and typically acquired from Dutch East India Co. (VOC).

What is interesting is that this blade does not have the VOC balemark but is indeed dated with year in the manner of those blades, AND has the typical 'Passau' running wolf chop mark.

The year seems to be the proper year (as with VOC blades) where Solingen blades with the running wolf often have numeric sequences thought to be talismanic (magic) numbers such as 1414 (most common) or 1441 and occasionally other numbers.

Thus the running wolf and year date are incongruent theoretically, however obviously they are authentically placed. It has often been surmised that numbers of Solingen smiths worked in the Netherlands and in fact made the blades for the Dutch VOC swords. Perhaps this blade was produced in circumstances where these conventions transposed?

One step further, perhaps this blade was made WITH this type of chopper point in the manner of the ambiguous 'scimitar' form, which did exist in some European interpretations of exotic blades in the mid 18th c. (as shown in the image of an 18th c apparent blacksmith made blade in colonies).

The line drawings from Richard Burton (1884, p.140) illustrate types of swords with similar rebated points, and while somewhat fanciful in the identifications these give an idea of the perceptions of 'exotic' swords generally held over the years to that time. Clearly through the conduit of trade networks and vessels bringing in these influences these notions must have been widely adopted.

29th October 2024, 02:52 PM	#2
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,940	This is MOST interesting! and while technically 'ethnographic' (as the sword as mounted is) the blade is of course a Solingen type blade of the 18th c. It seems the blade may have had the point rebated into the chopper type blades favored in these archipelagos of the East Indies and typically acquired from Dutch East India Co. (VOC). What is interesting is that this blade does not have the VOC balemark but is indeed dated with year in the manner of those blades, AND has the typical 'Passau' running wolf chop mark. The year seems to be the proper year (as with VOC blades) where Solingen blades with the running wolf often have numeric sequences thought to be talismanic (magic) numbers such as 1414 (most common) or 1441 and occasionally other numbers. Thus the running wolf and year date are incongruent theoretically, however obviously they are authentically placed. It has often been surmised that numbers of Solingen smiths worked in the Netherlands and in fact made the blades for the Dutch VOC swords. Perhaps this blade was produced in circumstances where these conventions transposed? One step further, perhaps this blade was made WITH this type of chopper point in the manner of the ambiguous 'scimitar' form, which did exist in some European interpretations of exotic blades in the mid 18th c. (as shown in the image of an 18th c apparent blacksmith made blade in colonies). The line drawings from Richard Burton (1884, p.140) illustrate types of swords with similar rebated points, and while somewhat fanciful in the identifications these give an idea of the perceptions of 'exotic' swords generally held over the years to that time. Clearly through the conduit of trade networks and vessels bringing in these influences these notions must have been widely adopted. Attached Images Last edited by Jim McDougall; 29th October 2024 at 03:47 PM.