Philippines punal

[Ian]

From the same auction as my earlier post today, this is a more convincing version of a late 19th C Philippines dagger. The hilt is made of two pieces of truncated, conical carabao horn (with small areas of typical insect damage) separate by a steel or brass disc spacer and capped with a steel disc. The crossguard with flattened round ends is also steel.

The double-edged, symmetrical, straight blade has a flattened diamond (lozenge) cross-section, and tapers linearly on both sides to an acute point. The blade shows residual signs of coarse grinding, typical of much Filipino work.

The hilt has a prominent swelling in the center of the grip, which is a well known Spanish style, and the knife likely comes from the Spanish Colonial period in the Philippines where I believe it was likely made judging from the materials used for the hilt. The end of the hilt is not visible in these pictures, but if it were to show a full length tang then that would add to its Philippine heritage.

This is probably an all-original Spanish Colonial knife for use rather than for show. It is hard to judge its age, but likely no later than 1900 in construction, and could be earlier in the 19th C.
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