Moro hilt, a question of region.

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

hi gav,


if your intention is to present that kampilan to pershing's museum, that would be cool. understand tho, that with just that tag backing it up, it will never be 100 percent certain that this was a part of his collection. fortunately, he already have an extensive collection of moro weapons.

Outstanding Ron, well spoken and thank you. It does seem I am and I will be going over a lot of ground you have already covered.
With the passage quoted above Ron, my point exactly. This is why I never wanted the tag that Mr lurker, (fielded by Battara) posted.
So much more can first be done to satisfy origins, decent etc. Relying on a tag to tell me where the sword is from can be counter productive and non conclusive.

Originally Posted by Spunjer

what is certain though, and without a shadow of a doubt, is if you present this to the National Museum in the philippines, or better yet, at the Aga Khan Museum in Mindanao State University (Marawi City, Lanao del sur), the moro people will get to view and understand this fantastic specimen of their ancestor.
regards
ron

A very interesting statement Ron, and well noted. What ever direction is ultimately decided the information and images will be sharded with anyone who wishes to know, hopfully a sound base can be provided for further indepth study by others.

Many thanks

Gav

[Battara]

Being very busy it has been difficult to get back to the forum. That being said he offered the information as another piece of the puzzle to consider. Sometimes later generations will get the information confused from stories told by the veterans. Not too shocking. I think it was nice that the other person tried to give some help to this inquiry.

As far as origins are concerned, I would not be shocked if this were Maranao since this was a favorite of theirs. What does give me some pause are the wonderful tiger bells. I would love to own one with tiger bells. Not too common and a very nice piece. Even the scabbard carving is of good quality. I agree with Ron in that the great value of this is the completeness of the piece. It is rare for these to have scabbards, much less well carved scabbards intact. Then the bells are an added bonus. I don't remember where Camp Vickers was located in relation to Maranao or Maguindanao territory (of the Battle of Pandapatan). Perhaps this would be a good place to start.

Although the blade does not look to be the typical type of blade usually seen in Moro kampilans, this does not preclude it necessarily from being from Mindanao. We are still learning from examples like this one.

I have a fossil molar barong for example. Fossil molar is rare on Moro pieces and only seen on kris. Yet my example has traits of being Samal and is the only one documented (by me). It is the only one in existence so far. I have learned some new things from this piece.

I know that your piece will shed light one some other things regarding this type of piece.

Before you send it off (if you do) would you post pictures of the piece in it's entirety?

[David]

Originally Posted by Battara

I don't remember where Camp Vickers was located in relation to Maranao or Maguindanao territory (of the Battle of Pandapatan). Perhaps this would be a good place to start.

Well, if you can place Pandapatan then Camp Vickers is one mile south of there.

Originally Posted by Battara

Although the blade does not look to be the typical type of blade usually seen in Moro kampilans, this does not preclude it necessarily from being from Mindanao. We are still learning from examples like this one.

I am confused. I don't see any photos of the blade in this thread, only the blade of Ron's example.

[Battara]

Originally Posted by David

I am confused. I don't see any photos of the blade in this thread, only the blade of Ron's example.

OOPS! Got confused with another thread. Would still like to see pictures of the whole thing.

[Gavin Nugent]

I'll post further images this week, just a little short on time atm.

Thanks

Gav

[Gavin Nugent]

As promised.

Gav

[Battara]

What a wonderful piece (grumble, grumble, envy, envy). Congratulations!