Battara:
They could have come off with handling or use, but I think many never had those brass ornaments in the first place. It may be a trend over time. The older ones, as seen in a number of older pictures of Bagobo warriors held by the Field Museum in Chicago, do show more brass on the hilts than what we see coming up on eBay and other sites today.
When swords do have the full complement of brass, they are usually higher end pieces with well forged blades. It could be that the level of ornamentation reflects the overall quality as well, which would not be not surprising.
Good Bagobo pieces are very elusive and we do not see them nearly as frequently as higher quality Moro or Visayan swords. I can see why the fairly ordinary Bagobo weapons attract substantial interest, although that interest is rather recent (and may relate somewhat to discussions on this Forum). Up until a few years ago, Lumad weapons were not very popular and as a result were inexpensive. These days in Manila the Lumad swords are more frequent and the asking prices have gone up considerably. Of course, this could reflect the scarcity of good Moro pieces coming out of Mindanao, and people are turning to the swords of other groups for their collections.
I have a nice older example and will take some new pictures to post here in a few days .
Ian.
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Originally Posted by Battara
Ian, I have a question. I have seen now a fair number of these that are missing the bottom and pommel brass nubs. Could they have come off over the years?
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