Earlier this month I was at the opening of the exhibit "Steel and Magic. Edged Weapons of the Malay Archipelago" in the Klingenmuseum in Solingen, the historic sword-making town in Germany.

A beautiful exhibit that exceeded my expectations, showing off the collections of mainly two important collectors in this field plus some items of the museum itself. I also got an honorable mention for lending an item to the exhibit, but that contribution is small compared to the numerous items provided by some of the others.

I made some photos with my phone but stopped when I saw just how good the photography in the catalog is. It's due out in January and I encourage anyone interested in Indonesian arms to get it.

We stayed in a loft in an old factory building which used to contain the workshops of knife and sword maker Karl-Kaiser of Solingen.
You can find it on AirBnB as "Karl-Kaiser Loft".

The plaque at the beginning of the exhibition.

A fantastic keris holder from Bali, Indonesia.

A very good Balinese keris.

A refreshing display of good kerises with blades in original condition.
(Many kerises on today's market have suffered bad acid damage in crude versions of ritual cleaning.)

Superbly executed twist-core on a rare type of saber from Brunei.

A nice peudeung from Aceh with golden crown pommel set with jewels.

My own humble contribution to the show.
A silver clad pedang lurus with V.O.C. marked blade, dated 1763.

All in all the show is well worth visiting, but for any who cannot make it do get the catalog because it is fantastic and will show each item in great detail.

For more information, see: www.klingenmuseum.de
A video tour of the exhibit by curator Sixt Wetzler is on www.youtube.com