Hello Roy,
indeed an odd mandau have to say too. Though it all looks perfectly good old n authentic, to be said first. The thing that I have personally also not seen before is the soft type of wood of the handle. The piece is a bit a puzzle to me too;
To my experience the handle has the carvingstyle of the Bahau-tribe on the upper Barito river as they always tend to use those thin vines almost 'framing' all the details of the handle and often ending in a scroll. Though they usually also carve long beaks with teeth (almost looking like horsemouths) but non on this.
The blade on the other hand looks like those from the Murut area who often have those crossbars engraved near the handle and those sections of engravings near the blunt edge. Also those Murutblades do not have the concave shape as most other mandaublades do (especially from Baritoriverregion).
At last your piece looks like a very old example -seen from the type of iron used n thickness- and I have seen more of these very old examples being puzzling to the Borneo-ëxperts. Perhaps its because some of the Dayak tribes (as the Iban) are or were migrating folks?!?
Enjoy it; those puzzling pieces are always so entertaining I think.
Wouter
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