Hi Carlos,
Thank you for posting this. These seem to be largely Spanish American War bringbacks, and about fifteen years ago, maybe longer, I found one exactly like this that was said provenanced from Monterrey, Mexico. Lots of research later, I was told by an authority on Spanish colonial weapons that these were from Cuba brought back by military during the Spanish American War.
According to authorities in Spain, these are typically considered from the Philippines, but given the Spanish trade routes this certainly seems possible as well. The blade on mine had the deep stamps in rows the full length of the blade, which was heavily patinated so seemed much earlier than the Spanish American War period.
The shellguard is interesting also with the multiple striated lines which correspond to shellguard espana anchas attributed now to Brazil c.1800 (see the pirate weapons thread, posted by Mark Eley).
I have no idea what those rows of deep marks might mean, but in the repitition seen appear to be simply motif.
Has anyone seen these show up in Philippine regions?
All best regards,
Jim
|