Heck of a piece you got there, bro! very happy for you that you're replacing your stolen pieces with quality ones!
indeed, this piece is from the 1st republic. really hard to find quality pieces from the tagalog region in the revolution era, so you are a very lucky person, my friend. i'm enamored with the unusual handle on that one, whereas the relatively common ones are plain, elongated football shape.
now i'm wondering about this which-come-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg question: would this be a stylized version of the other type of handle in which it's wrapped with silver and/or brass wire (which i refer to as the barber pole type), or would yours be the older style and the barber pole type be the later version? something to think about...
by the way, i don't think that's a gecko; i believe it's a bayawak, or monitor lizard. there has to be a meaning behind that snake eating a bayawak. can't find anything doing a quick google search about some forgotten legend regarding this two animals. perhaps a more thorough search? the bayawak could also represent spain, with the snake representing the filipino people...
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