Two Wonderful Javanese Kudi Tranchang Axes one with bird shaped head

A striking Indonesian weapon, very rare to find in this form, with a shaped birds head ‘ kudi peksi’ to the axe blade. This is a substantial weapon, with a large sharpened blade and thickened back of very good quality steel. The rear side of the head features fine shaping and fretwork with a large curl presumably recalling a birds crest, pierced with multiple holes. The area where the blade meets the shaft is much thickened and incredibly strong, there is some simple chiselled decoration here to the steel. The long wooden shaft is in good condition with some very attractive bands of carved floral decoration in high relief to the end. A smaller Kudi axe is also offered with this large example, again a very nice old piece.This one has a simpler curved sharpened steel blade again of fairly thick proportions, the shaft is decorated with brass studs, and traces of green and red paint, the bottom with a band of lead or tin. Two very rare old weapons from Java 19th century. Zonnefeld in his book ‘Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago’ mentions that Kudis especially in their older forms were often talismanic, believed to posses magical powers and were possesed by shamans or priests (pawang). The two example offered here may well fall into this category but are also clearly fully functional weapons.The differing but related forms between the indonesian islands can be clearly seen by this example from bali . southern asia