Different Borneo sword

[Mytribalworld]

Hi ,

thanks for listing this puzzling sword ! Your pics are very good and now it looks a lot more attractive.

For such possibly older unusuall examples we must be carefull with tagging it to a certain tribe. Migrations,trades and headhunting raids hasn't made it easier to determinate such pieces. Fascinating is it too see after seeing some hundreds of mandaus that there are still examples that we haven't seen before.It tells something about seemly endless artistic skills of the people who create them.

If the blade is concave or not doesn't tell anything about the origin IMO.
Both concave and not we see them used among different tribes in a large area. That the blade was once longer is for me no doubt looking to the overall shape. But just that fact is quite seldom as you see that the sword seems to be in use after the break.Seemly for the owner the sword had still value and possibly it was a heirloom of gift.

Wooden hilts are among collectors less valued that antler however they are interesting as the carved is more free to carve what he wants.
What is interesting is that your handle looks to have the overall basic shape of a Kayan hilt ( with larges eyes crossed by arms) but with complete other motifs however the back has a quite kayan looking design.
The main motif seems to be a kind of " hornbill head". Where that is from is again difficult, I see it more or less on an old "Batang Lupar like" sword in my collection but also in other carvings much more to the north.

Another feature ,not yet mentioned, is that the hilts ends are closed, there are no drilled or carved holes in it, so it was seemly mentioned not to attach ( human) hair to it. Maybe it was because the owner was too young and not "powerful" enough to carry hair bundles ? Was that maybe also the reason that this hilt was made out of wood ? Was it maybe a young well skilled boy who got the second hand blade from his father ?

All just speculations of course, sorry


Arjan

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by mandaukudi

Wooden hilts are among collectors less valued that antler however they are interesting as the carved is more free to carve what he wants.

Count me out Arjan! I'm interested in the carvings and not the material of which it was made off.

Originally Posted by mandaukudi

What is interesting is that your handle looks to have the overall basic shape of a Kayan hilt ( with larges eyes crossed by arms) but with complete other motifs however the back has a quite kayan looking design.

It's quite interesting as there are some features which I've seen in Mendalam handles, but here it's just carved a little different and overall missing those clearly aso motifs we see on Mendalam handles often.
(FI the back of the handle of a mendalam handle I attached next to Roy's. It has a similarity as Roy's but also performed a little different)...
A second motif (in the middle on both sides of the handle), we see this strange deeper motif -> In Mendalam handles we often see here a carved vault, with or without teeth and a lot of aso's around (which misses on Roy's though).
PS. I'm NOT implying it's Mendalam, as I'm sure it's not but I see some style copied here, but performed different.
But according the handle my theory (and ofcourse assumption as I've no proof) is that it could be from the Sarawak area above the Mendalam tribes (or from a tribe which had connections with the Mendalam's), considering the motifs on the handle.

Originally Posted by mandaukudi

Another feature ,not yet mentioned, is that the hilts ends are closed, there are no drilled or carved holes in it, so it was seemly mentioned not to attach ( human) hair to it. Maybe it was because the owner was too young and not "powerful" enough to carry hair bundles ? Was that maybe also the reason that this hilt was made out of wood ? Was it maybe a young well skilled boy who got the second hand blade from his father ?

Couldn't think about these speculations myself though.. : )



PS what do you think about the wooden piece instead of the resin ring?

Maurice

[VVV]

Skip my earlier reference because the picture in the Leiden database isn't good enough for the other forumites to see.
Here is one of my Mendalam hilts as a comparison (ex-Arjan's collection).

Michael

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by VVV

For the possible Mendalam similarity of the hilt, check the hilt of 1219-299 in the Leiden database.
I didn't want to bring it up earlier when there was still disagreement about the blade but now maybe is the time to discuss the hilt separately?

Michael

I'll have a look in a minute. I wasn't ready with my former post as I had some trouble with posting an image.

I'll have it posted here than...
Here the second "similarity" I meant to say in my former post, but than also very different...

[Maurice]

Michael, I know what you mean by the Leiden number as I've images of the handle (not to be found in the database)...

Again I see several similarities, but also not performed as usual.
Also there are to be seen motifs we see in handles more to the North (Sarawak), like the square holes at the sides of the handle and the carved veinlets..

Maurice