Shaver Cool -- redux

werecow · 20th January 2024, 12:42 AM

Quote:

For those members who have been visiting these pages since the early 2000s, I have a little trip down memory lane. You may recall the infamous "Shaver Cool" thread that discussed a sword with the inscription "Shaver Cool" and "Batavia" on the blade as well as a VOC marking of the Dutch East Indies Company. This was a thread that would not die. The subject of the thread bemused the best of minds here for months. Unfortunately, the thread died when the old UBB forum pages were hacked. Perhaps the "wayback machine" can resurrect some of it.

FWIW I've only been frequenting this forum since around the start of COVID and I remember this like I was there.

I saw one get auctioned off last year at catawiki for (IIRC) €1100 plus auction fee and rising (at that point I had to avert my eyes but I believe I posted here - EDIT: Ah, yes, so I did, it was €1101 + 9% + shipping - EDIT 2: Oh god, was searching google to find the catawiki one... there's so many of them... I found three in just two minutes of google image searching).
It was not of the same stellar quality as the specimen in this post.

Mods, apologies in case this is not allowed, but just to make the point about cautionary tales with bidding sites:

1
2
3

And finally the one I watched in horror:

4

AAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Ian · 20th January 2024, 04:59 AM

If we look at the various examples referenced here, it is apparent that no two are exactly alike. The quality of workmanship varies widely, and is generally not of a high standard. Certainly not up to the quality of blades coming from Tjikeroeh and other centers in Western Java during the late 19th and early 20th C.

I think all of these are of Indonesian manufacture and it is unlikely that any European was involved in their production. I believe they were intended for sale to the local and overseas European market (i.e., Dutch colonials and homeland), and are not in any way linked to the VOC. The markings are designed, perhaps, to appeal to nostalgia in the intended market. As to when they were made, I would guess in the early 20th C around the same time the better quality European style knives and swords were being produced in blade centers of western Java.

Auctioneers' stories of these swords being supplied to sailors aboard VOC ships are highly unlikely to be correct.

Jim McDougall · 20th January 2024, 07:24 AM

OMG IAN!
It wasn't months! it was years!
Too funny, thank you for the note, fun days

20th January 2024, 04:59 AM	#2
Ian Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Aussie Bush Posts: 4,065	If we look at the various examples referenced here, it is apparent that no two are exactly alike. The quality of workmanship varies widely, and is generally not of a high standard. Certainly not up to the quality of blades coming from Tjikeroeh and other centers in Western Java during the late 19th and early 20th C. I think all of these are of Indonesian manufacture and it is unlikely that any European was involved in their production. I believe they were intended for sale to the local and overseas European market (i.e., Dutch colonials and homeland), and are not in any way linked to the VOC. The markings are designed, perhaps, to appeal to nostalgia in the intended market. As to when they were made, I would guess in the early 20th C around the same time the better quality European style knives and swords were being produced in blade centers of western Java. Auctioneers' stories of these swords being supplied to sailors aboard VOC ships are highly unlikely to be correct.

20th January 2024, 07:24 AM	#3
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,800	OMG IAN! It wasn't months! it was years! Too funny, thank you for the note, fun days