Here is an old nyamba, or as they are often termed, "minat jenggul", that still has its integrity.
The metal is silver, which has probably saved it from being pirated, if Marco's was low grade gold (mas muda, probably about 10 carat) that's a pretty considerable enticement to strip it and sell the gold, especially if they was any damage to it, which would be likely because of its thinness.
The way a handle of this type was, and is, made is by fabricating the figure, that is, soldering together individual small pieces of silver to form the general shape, then filling it with wax and chasing or embossing it. When the details have been filled in, the wax is removed by boiling in water, and a more durable material is used as the filling. This more durable material can be one of several mixes, sirlak (shellac, or more correctly button shellac) mixed with a filler or alone is one, but more usual is natural resin , damar selo, mixed with a filler such as ground terracotta. There are variations of the mixes using these two major substances, and there could be other substances used that I don't know.
What we are seeing with Marco's hilt is in effect a casting of this material that was used to fill the fabricated shell of gold.
I have a pedang hilt that has a good part of the metal shell stripped away that shows quite clearly the form of the core material cast in the shape of the missing shell.I cannot provide an image of this hilt because at the moment I do not have it in my possession.
In my opinion it is very difficult to place an age on this type of thing. The pattern, and other similar patterns, appear to have been made continually over hundreds of years. I have other hilts similar to this that I am almost certain are late 19th century, one that might be a bit earlier, and others that I know were made in the early 20th century.
An object that is only 100 years old, if given a hard life, could appear to be very much older; conversely, something that has been preserved in a protected environment since new can be hundreds of years old, and appear to have been made yesterday.
This pattern could go back to the time of Majapahit, but to suggest that any specific hilt may have that age is possibly a little adventurous
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