Three swords from Central Timor

[Sajen]

I want to show you three swords from Central Timor from my collection. K. H. Sirag described this type of Timor swords as "type c" in the book from Albert G. van Zonneveld. They always have a handle shaped like a cock's head. The blades are mostly of foreign manufacture and most of the time curved, straight blades are not common so the one in down is an exceptional case.
The top one I've shown here a long time ago before, the two others are relatively new to the collection.
The top one has a Dutch klewang blade from Hembrug, the one in the middle of an unknown foreign saber, the small one in down of unknown origin. The one in the middle missing the inserted crest and maybe a tuft of hair, see picture. The scabbard is made from two pieces of kerbau (water buffalo) horn. By all three are the fittings from silver, heavily patinated which I only partly cleaned.
Top one is 77 cm long inside scabbard, 75 cm without, blade alone is 60 cm long.
The middle one is 69 cm inside scabbard, 65,5 cm without and a blade from 51,5 cm.
The small one in down is 51 cm inside scabbard, 47,5 cm without and a blade from 33,5 cm.
When other members have similar swords feel free to show them here.

[Sajen]

The handles.

[Sajen]

Over 100 views and not one single comment?

[milandro]

the top one appears to be a repurposed Hembrug Dutch " Klewang"( the Army and Navy weapon still in used in the NL by the marechaussee and formerly used by the KNIL army)

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by milandro

the top one appears to be a repurposed Hembrug Dutch " Klewang"( the Army and Navy weapon still in used in the NL by the marechaussee and formerly used by the KNIL army)

Yes, you are correct! It has a blade from a Hembrug klewang like I stated in #1. These swords Karel Sirag described in the book from Albert, "Traditional Weapons Of The Indonesian Archipelago" as "type c" have most of the time repurposed blades of European manufacture.
Thank you very much for the first comment!

Regards,
Detlef

[milandro]

cheers , sorry I have missed that part

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by milandro

cheers , sorry I have missed that part

No need to say "sorry"! I am glad you got the ball rolling!

[Interested Party]

I'm sorry to see these haven't created more discussion. I wish I had something to add as I find these interesting. Did the culture use straight blades as well?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Interested Party

I'm sorry to see these haven't created more discussion. I wish I had something to add as I find these interesting. Did the culture use straight blades as well?

Thank you very much for interest!

And yes, there are straight blades as well but normally not by these "type c" swords which are attributed to the Antoni people.
Timor has many different ethnic groups, look for further information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timor
And it's different when we speak about Timor (we mean normally this island) or when Indonesian people speak about Timor, they mean the complete Eastern Small Sunda Islands including Alor, Savu, Roti, Wetar and so on.
See also "Traditional Weapons Of The Indonesian Archipelago", when you have this book.
Attached is a picture of my South West Timor sword "type d" described by the same source.

Regards,
Detlef

[David R]

Very nice to see these three, thank you for posting. Like others I sometimes spend weeks or even months away from this forum, and then have a good old trawl through on all the new posts.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David R

Very nice to see these three, thank you for posting. Like others I sometimes spend weeks or even months away from this forum, and then have a good old trawl through on all the new posts.

Thank you David! Surprisingly, they seem to have attracted relatively little interest!

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Detlef, I think the paucity of responses to your posting of these swords reflects a lack of experience with the knives and swords of Timor. We just don't see very many. My own reaction was, "interesting swords ... I need to bookmark this page for future reference." A lack of response doesn't mean a lack of interest. A high number of views but few responses indicates high interest but not much to add to the discussion.

Now that you have illustrated these uncommon swords, I expect this thread will get revived from time to time as Forumites come across further examples. This is very useful material for our Archives.

Thanks for taking the time to create this thread.

Ian.

[Sajen]

Thank you for your warm words Ian!