Hello Godfried,
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I know Albert . I spoke to him on Sunday at the "Tribal Art Fair" in Amsterdam.
Sure thing - from the quality you're collecting at, I assume you've been in direct contact with some of the long-time Borneo collectors!
No not really. Some correspondence about a certain symbol on a Mandau and a discussion with Albert about a Mandau of mine made of meteorite steel. (I will post that discussion on the forum soon).
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The Mandau's are known to me. Nr-1 is a Mandau of the Long Glat (upper Mahakam) late 19th,c..
I agree - very typical example with excellently preserved blade! I'd assume that this piece entered NL pretty early.
Round 1900 from a dutch officer in the army
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And Nr-2 is a Mandau of the Kayan also late 19th,c.
This blade exhibits considerably more wear and might have been collected later; I'd also guess the scabbard is a later replacement during the 20th c. as it often happens with blades in active service.
Could be.
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I think the motif of photo-1 is the tumpal motif, but I'm curious if the circle represents the sun (surya) or a dashed head.
Yes, this is a very legit consideration - SE Asia is full of tumpal motifs. Of course, this motif itself is a reference to a multitude of associated interpretations (Mt. Meru, tree of life, etc.).
Regarding the circle: Interpretations throughout the archipelago are rarely if ever limited to a single meaning. Don't ask binary "or" questions - just use "and"...
The circle in the middle is not round but interrupted. The raised edges of the Tumpal motif have "teeth" on the inside. That makes me curious what it is exactly
BTW, there also seems to be a chance that it has a spiral connotation if you look at the lower/distal part.
In any case, the spiral has many meanings. That often makes it very difficult for me to estimate the correct meaning.
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Photo-2 is either just decoration or a stylized image of something. But of what.
Certainly not "just" decor - pretty much anything has a connotation...
Some motifs (aso, leeches) tend to be quite obvious while others can be much more challenging to discern. Especially the floral elements can sometimes hide larger motifs - these are often only visible with extensive experience, i.e. training of the eye.
That's why I joined this club, in the hope that experts can tell me a bit more about it
When looking into these details, I'd strongly suggest to look a lot into all kind of "Dayak" carvings, inked decor on tolor, tattoos, etc. Some motifs seem to be very widespread while others may be much more restricted in space and/or time. Considering the wide geographic scope, vast ethnic diversity, and extensive cultural evolution over time, such an extremely valuable project would be a really huge task! What have you been able to glean from the long-time collectors so far?
I did. Nieuwenhuis, Shelby, Carl Bock Hose and McDoughall etc all read.
In 1982 I was invited to one of the last "Gawai Kenyalang" parties on the Baleh River. And in 1993 I made an authorized expedition ( sponsored by the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia and Holland and the World Wildlife Fund
with 3 other westerners and native porters from Upper Mahakam to Bandjarmasin following Carl Bock. I have only started collecting mandaus for the last 4 years.
And indeed during my stay in Sarawak and Borneo (a few times) I visited many longhouses and saw many Dayak objects and indeed the diversity is enormous.
But here on the forum there are many more people who know a lot more about Mandau's than I do.
Regards,
Kai
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