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Originally Posted by kai
Most surviving examples may well be from that war but as Maurice indicated, these were, of course, also widely used in the other conflicts throughout the archipelago, including subduing the Banjar sultanate. BTW, has anyone studied colonial blunderbusses in detail?
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I think it's not easy to study colonial blunderbusses. As there was a lot of import/export!
But I know these blunderbusses were manufactured in Banjarmasin and Negara. I don't know how about other regions or indonesian islands, as I digged only this deep in Borneo matters.... (maybe other collectors of other specific area's can highlight something about the use/manufacturing of blunderbusses in other area's).
The text described below I have translated from J.C.J. Smits, "Gedenkboek Bronbeek".
This text will explain why (in my eyes) it's impossible to have a good study on these colonial blunderbusses as they all look the same or have similarities as others, which were trophees taken in other regions:..........................
In times when dr. Salomon Muller visited the former Banjarmasin state (in 1836), an amount of 100 Banjarese solely were concerned with the manufacturing of distinct weapon types.
"They make rifles", he said, "pistols-, soldiers- and shotguns, damascened sabers, swords and kerisses, in one word, all types of hand weapons."
These swords were partly made of indegenous steel, and partly of European steel.
The firearms that the Banjarese used in the war of 1859-1863, consisted of "lila's" (bigger and smaller blunderbusses) and guns of different shapes, mostly pan- but also percussion rifles.
MANY OF THE WEAPONS MADE IN NEGARA WERE EXPORTED. THIS PROBABLY EXPLAINES WHY THE RIFLES CONQUERED ON SUMATRAN EASTCOAST IN 1872 HAVE THESE HUGE SIMILARITY OF THOSE CONQUERED FROM THE DAJAKS.
ALSO THE WEAPONS CONQUERED ON NIAS ARE AS GOOD AS THE SAME AS THE ONE CONQUERED FROM THE DAJAKS.
Any other views on this subject are mostly welcome!
Rg
Maurice