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Originally Posted by kai
Hello Ian,
Have you seen any 20th c. barung blades with these blotches? I've only seen them with well-balanced blades that I believe to older.
Seems I haven't been paying enough attention to the younger generations of barung: Wasn't the first appearance of these "modern" hilt styles as well as the ridged scabbard placed around the early 20th c. with later additional modifications and a continuing decline in quality around/after WW2?
Thanks for any update/correction!
Regards,
Kai
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Kai, I'm not sure about the blade "blotches." Prominent blotches are not particularly common in my experience. I do have a high end 19th C. barung with a
suassa punto and silver bands on the hilt, which shows these features prominently (see attached pictures). As far as blotches being exclusively on older blades, that is very hard to say. With the increased use of monosteel, mostly post WWII, I think the likelihood of blotches went down considerably.
There are various styles of hilts that appeared in the 20th C, and I think Cato described several. The "eruption" of the
kakatua crest from the back of the hilt (rather than a continuous flowing curve with the rest of the pommel) seems to date from the 1930s, or maybe a little earlier. Again, it's hard to know because the likelihood of an early example of anything surviving to today and falling into our hands is rather slim. What we see probably post dates the earliest introduction by some amount of time, which may be a decade or more. What suggested to me that this hilt was somewhat recent is its carved decoration which does not strike me as usual on older forms of this style of
kakatua.
I've attached an enhanced view of the OP to my first post in this thread, which seems to show some form of colored material on the blade. This looks like varnish that was applied to prevent rust. Some of this material may also be giving the appearance of blotches on the blade.
The ridged scabbard is a 20th C feature that seems to have appeared sometime in the 1930s, maybe a little earlier, and gained prominence post WWII.
Those are my impressions.
The attached pictures show a 19th C datu
barung from Sulu.
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