Why and What We Collect--A Tale of Two Barung

[A. G. Maisey]

I'm talking about coins like the top 8 in the posted images.

My understanding of manufacture applies to these.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

Andrew,
No reason to exchuse that you have chosen to collect within a relatively 'small' area :-).
So have I, as my wife many years ago explained to me that I should chose what to collect. I had Indian weapons a fantastic saif, and some beautiful shasquas, but the Indian colelction was by far the biggest, so I coose Indian weapons.
To collect weapons from a specific area means, that research is directed to this area only, and it gives you a very big knowledge about weapons from this area. Some restricts their collection even more, to maybe 15th to 18th century, and this gives an even more concentrated knowledge :-).
Jens

I'm quite happy in my "small" world, Jens...as I suspect you are.

[Spunjer]

Hello Ian,
i'm not totally convinced with Cato's barung aging. i believe the second one you posted is older than 1930 (or 1920, for that matter). below are pictures of Panglima Unga and his compatriots. if you notice, Panglima Unga's barung appears to be what Cato would call a post 1930 piece, and so is the two gentlemen in the middle behind him.
as far as what is more appealing, i would say it depends. i started collecting wanting a nice barung. once i got a pretty decent one, i'd like to get a junggayan. after that, an ivory junggayan. and so on, and so forth. we have OCD, fellas. once we get what we want, we always strive for something else, lol