Great entry with that scene from "Swiss Family Robinson" ! Its funny about the complaints on the appearance of the pirates...too 'oriental'? too villainous?
The piracy phenomenon was not by far limited to Europeans, nor to the Caribbean.....the East Indies were rampant with pirates from many ethnic and tribal groups and in these regions, mostly of Asian origins of course.
The pirates operating in the seas from Arabia, to East Africa/Madagascar, the Indian Ocean to Malabar Coast of India were indeed European, mostly British but likely encountered pirates of other nationalities. The Mahratta pirates off Malabar, and there were Arab pirates from Muscat to Yemen.
The point is, pirates were not ALL the cliche' images of Pyle and Wyeth nor the woodcuts from Johnson's work on pirates and others.
The pirates from the 'seven seas'......including 'East Indies' may have included many nationalities and ethnicities, and the entire idea of their costume is psychologically intended.....deliberately to appear threatening and used indiginous weapons that were as diverse as their origins.
I have always been surprised at how widely the Japanese katana was known, throughout SE Asia, China and even the Philippines, so not unusual that there were many such traditional weapons known far out of original contexts, ESPECIALLY in that of pirates.
While not commonly known nor mentioned in most pirate literature, the attraction of 'exotica' including weapons was assuredly present in degree.
Interesting that a movie made in those times (1960) represented the 'pirates' accurately as oriental in character and indeed threatening, rather than fall to the cliche' representations, in my opinion.
Book,
Not surprising that the museum in Graz lent out elements of their huge collections to the opera house, different times and climate and such things would have been held respectfully.
The Bannerman phenomenon is fascinating , and this seemingly eccentric man built a castle on his own island in the Hudson in New York. Beginning with the end of the Civil War, he bought surplus military weapons and material literally by the ton. ...actual mountains of swords etc.
By WWI he had continued these kinds of huge acquisitions from many sources with WWI surplus included.
People found war surplus souvenirs intriguing and bought them as novelties, indirectly beginning the obsession of 'collecting'
and the plight of us all here.......for myself that of a lifetime! of joy and adventures in history.
No doubt whatsoever that many weapons used in films might have come from the hoards of Francis Bannerman.