A Lovely and Interesting Malay Sword

[Ian]

Charles, when I first looked at the pics I thought, like you, that there may be an Indian influence. That, in turn, made me think of Singapore where there is a large Indian ex-pat population (almost 10% counting permanent residents--mostly Tamils, with Tamil as the nation's third official language along with English and Mandarin). Given subsequent comments about the hilt and a possible Singapore link, I think we are getting close.

Ian

[CharlesS]

I agree Ian, and good point!

[Lee]

An incredibly handsome sword. I believe the striking pamor is arising from a moderately fine laminated construction with the layers lying nearly parallel to the flats of the blade.

[Victrix]

Interesting link how Singapore allegedly got its name:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sang_Nila_Utama

But the lion may have been a tiger? Apparently, lions never populated Singapore. The last tiger was allegedly shot in the Billiard Room and Bar at the Raffles hotel.

Also there seem to be links between India and Malay culture? Interesting.

[Gavin Nugent]

It's a striking sword Charles.

Personally, at face value with the images presented, I would say this is a composite piece with consideration to the pommel, my guess is that was once a horn pommel, however, stranger things have happened... Perhaps clear crisp union images from all four sides would clear it up???

As for origin, I'd say more from Sumatra.



Gavin