Flores belida sword, any infos?

[kai]

Bonsoir Julien,

Welcome to the forum!

I overlooked your posting - thanks, Ian, for the rescue mission!

Nobody has responded to your question yet, and I suspect that is because very few people own one of these swords. I have handled only one, and that was many years ago. They are extremely hard to find and even harder to purchase.

Yep, really rare in any condition. It's a pretty small region they're coming from, and the total number of people wearing these status swords would have been very limited.

Fully equipped pieces come with lots of bells and whistles! These needed constant care and restoration during their active use and I'm not sure if any perfectly complete antique example is still extant.

There are some commercial web sites that may have examples among their archives. In this regard, I would suggest that you look on the Oriental Arms web site and other sites featuring ethnographic swords that are listed on this site

I don't think Artzi ever offered one. I'm attaching pics (courtesy of Stefan and Arjan) for future reference. BTW, both pieces with twistcore blades.

Also check out museum websites (Dutch, especially)! I remember seeing an example that looked less old (art museum in the US) from the pic - so beware of stuff that has been tattered with, especially if haven't handled the real thing yet...

Regards,
Kai