Ideas?

[A. G. Maisey]

Michel, you are a remarkably well mannered man, however, I personally do not consider your apology is at all necessary. There is some similarity between your hilt and the one I posted , but I do not think your hilt is folk work---I'll use "folk work" in deference to Tim's objection to my previous term "village work".

The execution of your hilt shows a degree of professionalism, and an understanding of traditional motifs. To me, it looks like something that was done in Madura, early in the current era. I have seen a great many hilts of similar quality that show totally uninterpretable representations of something or other. It is almost as if the carvers say to themselves---"well, I'm sick and tired of doing such and such, let's see what I can come up with today." They carve for commercial purposes, and they know the value of a unique representation.