Go on..... show us your Sumara/Penai
 

Hello members,

since never before at this place was shown a Sumara I want to share my one with you because I think that this are very beautiful and unusual swords.
The very nice and fine carved handle is set together from two pieces of horn. At the scabbard which is also from two pieces of wood held together by finely wooven rotan (?) bands you will find as well some nice carvings. The end piece of the sheath is a later replacement and not the original one. The sword in scabbard is 81 cm long and the blade is 47 cm.

Hope to see some other nice examples. ;)

Regards,

Detlef

Hi Detlef ,

Nice piece with great carvings on the handle !

Hi Danny,

thank you my friend!:)


No other sumara in the collections of our members? Michael?? ;)

Wish I had one............but yours is nice. Yes love the hilt carvings.

I Sajen! Sumara are quite rare and yours is very nice. Maybe we will see maybe one or two more.... :p

Thank you Jose! :)

Hi Flavio,

also to you many thanks! Hope as well to see some more! ;) :D

Me tooooo!!! :) :) :) I have a Penai, but not a Sumara :(

Have changed the title of the thread, so your pictures are very welcome!! :D

:D :D :D :D :D

Here we go ;)

I think that now we will have more pictures :p

Hi Flavio,

thank you! A nice sword you have there, the carvings are very similar. And the blade is in much better condition as my one.

Let's hope to see more examples! ;)

Nice swords.
Unfortunately I don't own one, but I handled several of them.
If I would buy one, I'm going for one wrapped in tinfoil....

Hope to see one in this thread!

Maurice

Nice Sumara Detlef!

It seems that I have lost the pictures of one of them. So here it is with its cousins on my Toraja wall. And then an older one but without scabbard...

Michael

Hi Michael,

very very nice your Toraja wall! :eek: And so I have been correct when i "call" your name. The old type sumara is just beautiful, I only have seen one before.
How is named the sword with the hair at the handle?

Regards,

Detlef

Hi Maurice,

nice to "see" you here again! :) ;)
I never have seen one wrapped in tinfoil so I hope as well to see here one!

Regards,

Detlef

Very nice examples Michael!

Thank you Detlef. I've added two images from the Leiden museum collection.
I've seen a similar for sale some years ago, but unfortunately I wasn't able to grab it at the time...

Maurice

Thank you for the pictures! I think I have to look more at the site from the Leiden museum. :) When I look at the both examples I direct get the thought that maybe all was wrapped at one time with tinfoil.. :shrug:

Regards,

Detlef

Detlef,

The one with hair is also a Penai. They changed the top of the hilt depending on what use they had in mind (war, rituals etc.). Unlike for the mandau it seems that it always is human hair on these Penai.

Michael

Thank you Michael, again, a beautiful display with very nice swords!

Here's my new find!
Hopefully there are some remnants of tin foil, which would do also to get me satisfied.... ;)

I'm very pleased some of the "almost ever" missing cord is still there..

Hi Maurice,

very nice example! :eek: Seems to have a nice pamor. please post more pictures when you have received it.

Regards,

Detlef

OK Detlef, I got it and was very pleasantly surprised of the quality, which wasn't shown in the images of the seller clearly.

I'm collecting Borneo, but think I will not be able to trade/ part with this one, as it's a pure headhunting sword (though from Celebes).
Look at the complicated knotted hair at the handle of one of the victims!

Also a great surplus is that the blade is covered with tin. As I said before this was done with swords which had taken heads! Unfortunately some rust comes through here and there, but I decided not to clean it, avoiding loosing some of the tin (which I definately not want).


Regards,
Maurice

Hi Maurice,
Just wanted to add that the way of tying the hair is exactly the same as on the 3 celebes spears that I own.
Unfortunately the spears are decorated with monkey or dyed goat hair. :shrug:

Best regards,
Willem

Hi Willem,

Can you post some images of the tying of the hair?
Probably they are from the same area than...

Kind Regards,
Maurice

Hmmmm...

I wish I had some daylight available at this hour :)

Here 2 close ups of hair decoration on the spears.

Yes indeed the same way as on the penai! Thanks for the images. I bet they're beauties of spears....

Kind regards,
Maurice

Well.... spears can be sort of boring... but if you line them up they make a nice display ;) :p

Come on forumites, show us some more sumara's !!!

Very nice display Willem.
I still have a Borneo spear for you lying here. I will not able to take it to you by train next month, as it would be a strange sight...

PS. Here an old image of Celebes swords (around 1911).....

5 of them with tassels. That is what you hope to find in a garage sale :)

Hello, here is my first Sumara :

Hello Séverin,

I think it's a penai! ;) But a very nice one, love the carvings at the scabbard. Very nice sword.

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Detlef,

Thank you for the correction. I have never really understand the difference between Sumara and Penai. Whith the word "penai" I found all the handle variation on internet.
Sumara is only for handle with a big "V" ?

Not always, have for example a look to post #13, the beautiful examples from Michael, the one without scabbard is Sumara. There are different handle forms, look also #18, the statement from Michael.
And you find the answer for the query in your new thread! ;)

Regards,
Detlef

Was able to add a Penai to the collection. Someone carved away the big integral guard a long time ago, maybe to get a better grip for a big hand.
It comes with a replacement scabbard (not shown) of low quality but the laminated blade is in very good condition after I've removed the corrosion.
62,5 cm long, blade alone 49 cm, 8,5 mm thick at the spine behind the handle. 608 gram.

A couple laying around home.

Gavin

WOW, very nice! Special the upper one.:cool: When you don't have space for them send them to me! ;)

Regards,
Detlef

Sumara and Penai side by side.