Badek or Badik from Celebes open for discussion
 

Want to show you guys this nice BADEK I purchased recently.
Angled handle is hippo as the dotted lines indicate. The colours differ back and front while being exposed to sun ( so the dark side facing the light?).
The texting LA MELLO is a question mark to me? Done by the previous owner (but still an old marking in ink).
The bottom shows a ring of grey horn ( a ring because the tip end shows the original wood of the sheath). It feel like the sheath is being reduced / cut off a bit ?
The mouth part is only decorated from one side. Read that there are being worn left and / or right around the belly.
Pamor is clear (with a crack line) and said to be Walang Sinunuk, is that correct?

The hilt looks it's made of hippo ivory.

I like the armor and the top scabbard carving.

Short? I don't think so.

Hi Paul:

I find this a very attractive knife! It appears to have some age, and I would think it is at least first half of the 20th C. The hilt of hippo ivory shows some yellowing with age, and I think the difference in color between the two sides reflects oil from the body of the wearer when the knife was worn thrust through a belt or sash at the waist. Oil on ivory tends to darken and yellow it as it penetrates (along with a little dirt or other contaminants).

The penmanship on the scabbard suggests someone who went to school before 1960 when handwriting was still an art to be practiced with a steel nib dipped in ink. The broader downstrokes and lighter upstrokes (e.g., as seen on the letter "l") reflect someone taught the copperplate style of writing. The loops on some of the other letters are also consistent with the copperplate or similar style of writing that was taught in the British and colonial school systems during the 19th C and first half of the 20th C. The blackness of the ink suggests it was written with "India Ink," a particularly dark and durable ink used for labeling things at that time.

Ian.

Thanks Ian for your thoughts and view. Agree, Indian Ink is used for the writing. Wonder if it is related to a Roman language (Spanish or alike).
From underneath I can see the wood used for the gandar so the tip end of grey horn is rather a 'ring' which seems unusual?
The wood used is angsana or sena?

Bugis
 

Hello Paul,

If I'm not mistaken, this loosely translates into "handsome guy"... ;)

Regards,
Kai

Kai hit me by the translation! :D ;)
A very nice 19th to very early 20th century Bugis badik, and yes, the handle is from hippo ivory. That the nice carving is only on the front side of the scabbard isn't uncommon and I don't think that the scabbard is shortened.
Very nice badik, when you get ever tired looking at it...... ;)

Regards,
Detlef

English, Dutch, French, Portuguese, ... any of the western European languages.

Hi Kai,

I think perhaps this comes from the Spanish verb mellar which means to knick (as in a blade), damage, or notch. From which mello = I knick. ("The handsome guy" would need a masculine article rather than the feminine la. :))

Or it could be a person's name or the name of a place.

Ian.

La Mello almost certainly is a Buginese name. Such are given also to honored weapons - La Sippo, La Makkawa.

In older times they were often written together:
La Galigo - Lagaligo

It is quite possible this Badik was a heirloom.

Hello Gustav,

very interesting! :) Do you have a source for this statemen?

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Gustav,

Yes, seems to be a fairly common name. Might point to the owner as well as to the badik. However, I don't think it was an established practise to write a name onto a badik scabbard. Maybe done by or for a collector?


A genuine badik with status dress will almost certainly be a family heirloom if made for an orang Bugis/Makassar/etc.

Regards,
Kai

BadiK
 

how are you all,
I finally found one of my favorite taradisional weapons, this badik called badik luwu, has the pamor that we call him is pamor kuriisi, this is one very good bugis badik

Best regrads
LP

[QUOTE=Gustav]La Mello almost certainly is a Buginese name. Such are given also to honored weapons - La Sippo, La Makkawa.

In older times they were often written together:
La Galigo - Lagaligo

It is quite possible this Badik was a heirloom.[/QUOTE


Hell
]the writing on it may be written La Bello (the beautiful) or La Melo (who follow the will) I do not know, is it the owner's name or the name of the badik itself, because the bugis people often give the nickname to their weapon, because they say the weapon is brothers brand,