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Lot 660
A knife / dagger "bade, badik"
Estimated Value:
900 € - 1.500 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Sumatra, South or Central, Malay or Minangkabau / Padang, 18th/19th cent.L. 37,7 cm
Steel, wood, horn, bone. A good badik, the Sumatra, which probably belongs to the padang area (Minangkabau). The badik is a type of dagger knife that is known and widespread in large parts of Indonesia. It is quite possible or even probable that it originated in Sumatra or the Malay area and spread throughout the archipelago in the 16th and early 17th centuries in the course of the establishment of the maritime trade routes of the Muslim Malays and the diaspora of the Malays and Bugis after the conquest of Malacca and Makassar. The origin of this knife form lies in South India; it found its way to Southeast Asia at the latest during the period of intensive Indian cultural influence (10th - 13th century). The present badik is a hybriform in its entirety. The knife-like back blade is made of finely striped, refined metal with a differentiated grain of standing layers. A neatly exposed middle layer (cutting layer) of hard steel is clearly recognizable. The quality is high, no cavities are visible. The relatively large, flowing curved handle is made of kemuning wood (Murraya Paniculata Jack). It has the typical “tapa-kuda” end (“horse foot”), which in this case is made of black horn with a curved concave surface, and a base divided into decorative beads. The design and size are indicative of the Minangkabau region. The Minangkabau (who used to be notorious fencers) seem to have preferred large handles. The mouthpiece of the scabbard is made of selected timaha wood (Kleinhovia Hospita Linn, also called timaha, timanga). The “eccentric” shape, which provides a comfortable grip in the waistband, is typically South Sumatran, but can be found all along the northeast coast of Sumatra. Remarkable is the gandar, the blade sheath in the true sense of the word. It is made of light-colored, transparent buffalo horn. Curved vegetal ornaments were carved into the inside, which can be clearly seen against the light. The widened scabbard foot is made of black horn and has a decorative bone ring. The scabbard is of robust construction - scabbards were also used for parrying in an emergency. The quality is very high, the piece has an excellent feel. Details such as the slightly curved contact surface of the handle base and scabbard mouth with the precise fit, the precisely exposed steel position of the cutting edge and the select grain of the scabbard mouthpiece are details that identify the piece as a very high quality representative of its kind, also (or precisely because) precious metals and other “gimmicks” have been dispensed with.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s - Collection no. 177
