Accession Number

2014.014.005a-b

Description

One short sabre-like sword with a wide, curved blade. Narrows to a 45-degree angle at its tip. White (possibly bone) handle with a brass pommel and three brass inlaid circles in the handle (one is missing). The brass cross guard has a shell-shaped rain guard attached. Geometric patterns are engraved into the blade; on the side opposite the rain guard, the letters "TJIKR" are engraved directly above the cross guard. The wooden sheath is painted black with brass fittings attached to both ends.

Narrative

This sabre-like weapon with Dunsmuir/Bryden provenance was probably made in the late 19th or early 20th century as a tourist souvenir near the village of Tjikeroeh in east Java, Indonesia (formerly known as the Dutch East Indies). It is not known how or when it came to be in the hands of the Bryden family, but it is the sort of exotic item that the European and North American Victorian home-owner of means liked to have around the house – particularly in smoking rooms.

History of Use

This sword was once owned by John William Bryden (1869-1953) and was inherited by his son, Gerald Robert Bryden, and then by Gerald's daughter, from whom The Castle Society acquired it in 2014.

A member of the Bryden family has suggested that John William Bryden might have received this sword as a gift from his daughter Lucy Lenore Bryden's husband, John Commodore Ryland, who had been an Acting Captain in the Royal Indian Navy during the Second World War. 

Dimensions

44 x 4 cm

Material

Metal, steel; Metal, brass; Bone; Wood

Technique

Forged; Cast; Painted

Inscription

TJIKR (on the blade)

Country of Origin

Indonesia