Ben,
I don't think Leiden is the proper place to find resembling hilts to ours.
This because of the non Iban bias in their collection.
I had a look myself in their collection archive and didn't find any close to yours.
On my hilt it looks clearly influenced by two of the old Kenyah hilts collected by Nieuwenhuis?
By influenced I mean that that's the closest resemblence of the hilts in their collection. Not that they are identical in style.
Maybe the Kenyah resemblence is another reason to classify this as a transition sword before the Iban adopted the Ilang as their own parang?
Here is a picture of the hilt from another angle for comparison.
Michael
PS Don't you think your hilt a bit resembles the old ones in Tromp's article, collected in Koetei?
Last edited by VVV; 30th November 2006 at 09:57 AM.
Reason: Added PS and example
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