Private collection: Karel Sirag

Set of Photos 33

Looking at different Gobang Bandungs in museum and private collections, we can subdivide the hilts into four types.

Type I

Photo 34

Type I:

The most common ones are the sectional quadrangular type of hilts, which bend downwards and are widening towards the flat top.

Some are widening more extensively towards the top than others, but all have the same kind of shape.

Sometimes the single sections, over the whole length, are made more or less clearly concave.

The materials used for this hilt type are wood or horn, a combination of those two, or sometimes totally covered with silver.

Some of them have a small silver ferrule (often missing).

Type II

Photo 35

Type II:

These hilts are more round and as a rule a bit more slender than the “type I” hilts. They also bend downwards and have a flat top.

The materials used for this hilt type are wood or horn.

Type III

Photo 36 & 37

Type III:

This hilt type ends in a point at the top, which means that they do not have a flat top as “type I and/or II”.

The materials used are wood, combined wood or horn, and sometimes totally covered with very nicely decorated silver.

Type IV

Photo 38 & 39

Type IV:

Are the “one of a kind” handles which can’t be derived from “type I, II or III”.

We can distinguish different types of blades (page 48). Some are straight and some are curved upwards.

Also we see them with several, one or no fullers.

Some blades have no false edge, and others a small or large false edge, and sometimes even a false edge along the whole spine of the blade.

The blades can be very plain with no decoration whatsoever, but also can have a beautiful pamor showing.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rules, such as the blade from the sword depicted on the "Set of photos 40",  which is decorated at the start of the edge with chiselled motifs, and has brass inlay along the spine.

Set of Photos 40

The scabbards are from two slabs of wood, which are widening at the scabbard tip and scabbard mouth, and have been entirely wound with rattan strips.

The scabbard mouth and endpiece (Set of photos 41 - 42) were made of wood, horn, bone or silver.

The mouth and endpiece are connected to the scabbard with a longer protrusion which has been pushed between the two slabs of wood, and than fastened with two or three wooden pegs, surrounded with rattan to keep it all in place.

Such attachment can be seen at the best in the lower image of the "Set of photos 42",  because a part of the rattan is missing and therefore we can clearly see the attachment because the protrusion and the pegs are visible.

You can see the different kinds of girdle straps on the several depicted museum examples in Chapter "Gobang in Dutch Museums".