As curator of the display I suppose I should comment at least a bit on these...
...the "Moro" pieces in the first few photos were collected in 1902 by a Mr. N.B. Denys. We have no further info on who he was but presumably was a colonial civil servant of sorts. Most were bought in Brunei.
The Bugis keris with the lawe setukel pamor is one of my all time favorite kerises. The batang of the sheath is ever so subtly waisted and the swoop of the sampir is divine.
The burung serindit piece was carved by Tengku Ismail - one of the most attention to detail oriented carvers of all time. It is a masterpiece - Nik Din once told me Ku 'Smail had over 4000 tools in his workshop...talk about detail oriented.
The tajong is one of the best of Nik Din's works...its the whole package from micro to macro - a genuine masterpiece.
The badik Makara is IMO Nik Rashidee's single best work. We're very proud to have it on display.
The Pattani Singabarong is ultra-rare and a singular piece. I've seen others but I've never seen better.
The two "Palembang" pieces are said to have been the property of Pangeran Said Ali, I've found enough info to be sure that he was a historic figure from the mid-19th century from Siak and that he did visit Singapore regularly in the '40s and 50s but I have yet to unearth the original records of how the pieces entered into the collection...btw I think the pendokok of the Jawa Demam hilted example was added later by one of my early predecessors as such examples are usually Peninsular.
Also, I undertand your frustration at the light levels in the galleries but because there are also textiles on display in this gallery we have to be careful where and how much light we use in the displays. Hope you all understand...
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