Description

An interesting and rather rare type of Sumatran sword. 

The blade widens considerably towards the tip, the edge sweeping up in an arc to meet the point. The tip section is double-edged, and with some serrations at the start of the backedge.

The blade is beautifully forged in high-contrast laminations, forming a hairpin turn both at the tip and the base. 

The base of the blade is a stepped steel structure with facets, and two elements projecting sideways. It is reminiscent of the base of the sikin panjang of Aceh. 

The hilt is carved of wood and is finer and more artistically accomplished than most in this genre. It has a báitóng ferrule.

Scabbard

The scabbard is made of two halves of wood and encloses the blade completely. At the top is a sideways projection with carved decoration. The endpiece is made of a piece of black buffalo horn.

There are two openings, one on either side, where a sliver of wood is missing. Probably caused by the blade itself over time, which is very sharp.

Attribution

This sword is part of a very small but diverse group of swords. A shared characteristic is the form of hilt, and the tendency towards this strongly widening blade profile. Most have a narrow, slotted scabbard, but ours has a more conventional closed scabbard.

Those with provenance came from the Padang Highlands, in the present-day province of West Sumatra. Most, however have a narrow scabbard with a slot in the top for insertion of the blade. Our scabbard fully encloses the blade.

The Ethnographic Museum in Leiden for example has a very similar sword under accession number RV-1599-599. It was purchased by the museum in 1907 and was attributed to the Mandailing people.

Leiden Ethnographic Museum accession number RV-1599-599.