Knife with a Spanish Influence?

[Lee]

I acquired this knife in 1973 in a general antiques shop in Laguna Beach, California for $75, described on the receipt as a "Spanish knife" and presented, if I recall correctly, as a relic of Old California. The blade is 13½ inches long. The grip is well carved dark horn with a brass ferrule and figural cap. The sheath is not original to this knife, as the knife only fits in backwards and opposite to the implied geometry of the sheath mouth. I solicit your opinions on where and when it is actually from.

[Jim McDougall]

As always repurposed and ersatz alterations are hard to peg, and often reliable provenance are the best ways to try to estimate. The hilt, and guard seem like earlier hunting hangers around mid 18th c. and for that matter the remains of forte motif seem to suggest same.
What seems to suggest the Spanish influence is the slight uptick in the clipped type point, often derisively termed the 'frog sticker' by frontiersmen in the 19th c. ..a feature often seen on espada anchas of Mexican period post 1821.

The face on the pommel cap suggests probably British or possibly German hilt.

Lots of unique shops in Labeena Gooch (as we called it in the day) and one of my first 'Spanish colonial' swords was an old dragoon sword, in a boutique window, but festooned with costume jewelry necklaces. As I looked at it, with the blade and 'Spanish motto" ...draw me not without reason...... I was horrified at the disgrace. I bought it for a paltry sum from the owner who saw only a dark old sword, rather than the blade of honor of a now long gone caballero.

[Jim McDougall]

As always repurposed and ersatz alterations are hard to peg, and often reliable provenance are the best ways to try to estimate. The hilt, and guard seem like earlier hunting hangers around mid 18th c. and for that matter the remains of forte motif seem to suggest same.
What seems to suggest the Spanish influence is the slight uptick in the clipped type point, often derisively termed the 'frog sticker' by frontiersmen in the 19th c. ..a feature often seen on espada anchas of Mexican period post 1821.

The face on the pommel cap suggests probably British or possibly German hilt.

Lots of unique shops in Labeena Gooch (as we called it in the day) and one of my first 'Spanish colonial' swords was an old dragoon sword, in a boutique window, but festooned with costume jewelry necklaces. As I looked at it, with the blade and 'Spanish motto" ...draw me not without reason...... I was horrified at the disgrace. I bought it for a paltry sum from the owner who saw only a dark old sword, rather than the blade of honor of a now long gone caballero.

[RobT]

Hi Lee,

The sheath is northern Philippine without doubt (Vasayan IIRC). If you are interested, I can post examples in my collection. I see nothing about the dagger itself that is inconsistent with the same area. This would also account for the "Spanish attribution. What is also interesting is the clip point. Since the blade appears to pre-date WWII, this is further evidence that the Philippine Bowie existed as a type before the war and wasn't just created as a souvenir created for US servicemen.

Sincerely,
RobT

[Ian]

Hi Rob and Lee,

Interesting knife, Lee. I agree that there is a Spanish flavor to it. The short brass cross-guard with terminal balls plus a horn hilt is very consistent with a Spanish origin.

The sheath is reminiscent of Philippine models. However, the decoration at the throat of the sheath does not look Filipino to me. Rob has suggested a northern Luzon origin, and I think he is referring to Ilokano sheaths that are often black. But this is not an Ilokano sheath--the style is wrong IMHO. I think the motifs on th sheath and the treatment of the sheath's tip are more likely Mexican colonial in style. The fact that the knife does not fit the sheath makes the sheath somewhat moot, and perhaps culturally unrelated to the knife.

"Spanish colonial" seems a good designation for the knife.

[Jim McDougall]

I think one of the more overlooked elements of influence in Spanish America is the profound trade networks that operated via the Philippines, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and Acapulco, San Blas and San Francisco. The 'Manila galleons' prevailed through the 18th century, but diminished with Mexican independence.
In the active period the 'Spanish Main' remained the conduit for many Asian/Oriental influences, and most certainly from the Philippines. I have seen various Spanish material culture of 18th century with notably oriental, specifically Chinese, decoration.

It becomes very difficult to assert classification or regional assessment to items such as this knife when the confluence of styles, features and design is notably diverse. Without exact provenance, speculation is just that, and the only responsible way to represent the weapon is to include the various factors considered.

[Ian]

Jim, you are spot on with the issues of trade and interconnectedness among the various Spanish colonies. There are clear cross-overs in style between Spanish knives in Mexico, broader Latin America, and the Philippines. The usefulness of a blade style in one place translates to the use of a similar style elsewhere, but not always. For example, some espada ancha styles seem to have been localized in the New World and are rarely, if ever, found in the Philippines.

As I mentioned above, sometimes the best we can do is designate an item as "Spanish Colonial."

One fact that is sometimes overlooked is that not just trade was important in the exchanges between Spanish colonies. There was a political element also. Several of the Spanish Governors of the Philippines came from established aristocratic families in Mexico.

Regards, Ian

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks Ian, and well noted on the political context. The Philippines were the far reaches of the 'Spanish Main' which did not simply vanish after the so called 'golden age of piracy' in the early 1700s. Actually piracy continued in many theaters in accord with Spanish trade vessels, in these cases returning to America's west coast in regions also controlled by Spain.

Since the Philippines was one of the central entrepots for trade in proximity to the SE Asian and Chinese spheres, it neatly explains the volumes of trade items and influences that filtered into these contexts.

While the Philippines had of course prominent Spanish influence, there were of course prevalent influences from the profound Muslim populations, known to the Spaniards naturally as Moro's. The melding of all these influences through the commerce in the Philippine archipelagos as well as cross diffusion, often renders finite identification of items without sound provenance difficult, if not sometimes impossible.

While the espada ancha form did remain essentially one which maintained in the frontier regions of New Spain, which included California, the Spanish southwest and what is now Mexico (in the northern frontiers mostly)....there is some degree of evidence of some influences with hilt style.

This example shown reveals compellingly similar construction to 'espada ancha' hilts, though the blade is purely Filipino. I have little knowledge in the Filipino sphere, but from posts here, but I believe Visayan provenance was suggested. Clearly it is reasonably modern, but the basic espada ancha form prevailed in Mexican regions into 20th c. so those same influences long standing there surely reached Spanish holdings in the Philippines.

With the machete style swords we once termed 'Berber sabers', now known to have acquired that designation through apparent use in the 'Rif wars' in Morocco in 1920s (Tirri)....we have found their center of provenance was typically in Cuba. Similar examples were known through the Spanish colonial regions from the Gulf to Vera Cruz as well as Caribbean locations, particularly the Dominican Republic.
Examples of these however have been known with distinct Filipino character in hilt design and decoration, again suggesting the vast diffusion of certain weapon forms via distinct trade networks.

I entirely agree that Spanish colonial is likely the best serving term, and further qualifying designation suggested accordingly.

These areas of study are totally fascinating, and quite honestly I need to get up to speed with the Filipino areas. I totally admire the knowledge you and many others who contribute here possess!

[Jim McDougall]

I wanted to add an example of European influences, likely via forms of small sword which appear to have entered Indonesian spheres in the colonial period end of 18th c. into early 19th. with the Dutch.
This Javanese pedang suduk (tusuk) shows noticeable European styling, and the faces on scabbard and pommel cap reflect the lion face (of Orange) in Dutch heraldic symbolism.
The Dutch used native mercenaries from several locations, but most likely in this case Madura.

Most notable here with regard to the knife being discussed is the hilt shape, which along with the face symbolism suggests European influence.

This of course brings the question, was the knife itself fashioned in the Philippines, and diffuse to California, or otherwise? A conundrum indeed.

Just added a Dutch hunting hanger c. 1750. Note the hilt shape (though faceted). In the example the wood scabbard is lacquered in yellow ochre, which reflects the strong oriental influences in small sword decoration in these times known as 'Tonquinese'. The yellow ochre seems to have been a color notable in Chinese decoration.
Further elements in the conundrum!

[RobT]

Ian,

Here are examples of this type of sheath from my collection. All the blades are plainly from the Philippines. In the cases where the entire sheath is present, the blades fit the sheaths. The fragmentary sheaths fit the area of the blade by the hilt.
All examples have a leather throat reinforcement with a scalloped bottom and, in all cases, the reinforcement is pierced on the sides to accept a diagonally transverse belt. Even in instances where the belt is missing, this piercing is evident.
I know that blades that have lost their original sheaths are frequently paired with improper replacements but, with this number of examples, I think it is safe to conclude that these sheaths were part of Philippine material culture. Whether they were adopted from Spanish designs, I can’t say.

Sincerely,
RobT

[Ian]

Rob, no question that the sheath of the original post resembles sheaths from Luzon. However, the resemblance is not entirely convincing for me. In particular, the decorative area showing a face and radiating rays is atypical of Filipino work IMHO. The attachment with an angled strip across the sheath and two rings to attach a belt is an arrangement seen on knives from Laguna and other areas in Luzon, as you have shown with those examples.

Since the sheath does not fit the knife in the usual fashion, then I think we need to discard the sheath when identifying the knife's origin.