Dear all,
Most examples on the market these days are results of cultural appropriation for mere business reasons - if not outright fakes (in case claimed being genuine northern Melayu pieces/antiques), they tend to be poor copies exhibiting poor flow of lines, non-Malay motifs, etc.
The example discussed in post #9 seems to has a blade straight out of Madura, made yesterday when acquired and placed onto auction soon enough. Not sure where these hilt reproductions are carved in Indonesia, but they have been getting better and better in recent years. Many are still easy give-aways like this one though.
I can't remember seeing any old ensembles combining a genuine tajong hilt with any Bangkinang blade - I guess many local Singgora/Pattani/Kelantan blades are close enough (long/slender) to not bother bringing in Bangkinang blades in olden times for regular usage.
Aside from possibly older (vintage?) Sumatran copies of coteng/tajong hilts, there apparently are related genuine hilt styles from Sunda and Sumatra, some of the latter might have been combined with keris panjang blades.
Regards,
Kai
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