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Originally Posted by LOUIEBLADES
Rick is quite right!
We really need to be careful when we apply the tourist label to older swords and daggers. These goloks are not cheap copies they were more likely sold to the local Dutch living and working or soldieringi in the area and were used as a back up side arm or hunting knife. I'm sure one of these goloks would come in quite handy when walking through a narrow dark street somewhere in these towns.
Btw,Here are two more from my closet  top one seems mid 20th century the bottom is early 20th century.
Lew |
I fully agree. I don't apply the tourist label at once to these weapons. I think that these weapons where mainly made for the Dutch who brought these weapons to Holland as a souvenir or should we better say as a gift for friends and relatives. Dating and placing the name of a city on the blade wasn't an Indonesian habbit.
The Dutch working and living there used these weapons certainly as side arm or hunting knife. But I know that the Dutch also used the common local weapons for these activities. I don't think that there was any need for a weapon with a date on the blade.
The Tjikroe dated blades and other well known military souvenir keris where brought to Holland in the fifties by the young soldiers after service or during their leave.
Better see these weapons in historical perspective like the well known KNIL madura souvenir keris, with the wrangka as a lying lion and the ukiran in the shape of a woman or male figure, but with a real old keris blade. In my opinion these weapons certainly should be part of a collection referring to the historical KNIL period. Souvenir? Yes, and souvenirs aren't always cheap worthles stuff. Tourist? No!!