Unusual gunong, from where?

[Bangkaya]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

don't have one on hand, but a good way to see Waray motifs would be on some of the garabs...

Sorry for the late reply, but I assumed most collectors of Filipino weaponry would be familiar with Waray swords and design motifs. David is correct that the Waray are the ethno-linguistic group hailing from Leyte, Samar, and Bilaran. They are surrounded by the Ilonggos and the Cebuanos and are fiercely proud of their heritage. As Spunger has mentioned the weapon most closely associated with them is the garab made infamous by the pulajanes faction (mainly in Samar) and early examples of the binulang sansibar (though later sansibars have more of a Cebuano influence due the migration of Cebuano panday clans to the Carigara and Jaro regions of Leyte....but I digress.) More people would be familiar with the later examples of Waray weaponry with all those WWII souvenir "Victory" "talibons" usually marked with Leyte 1945 on the scabbards.

I realize my initial response was a bit vague. What I implied was that the scabbard looked Waray and may not be original to the dagger. This is actually quite common in the Philippines. I have an old junggayan barung with a replacement Ilonggo scabbard (it looks weird, but fits like a glove.) The gunong itself could be Moro (though I'm not 100% certain it is, too.) The reason I say Waray is because of the design motifs on that gunong scabbard show more Waray traits than any Bangsamoro traits from any of the Muslim peoples...especially those of Lupah Sug. For one, Moro design motifs would be more organic and amorphous with less defined borders. This scabbard has heavily defined motif borders and panels with more repetitive geometric elements....definitive Waray design elements. Also, there is a definite representation of a flower in the center of the scabbard....you would never see that on a Moro scabbard. As for photos, I've seen several excellent examples of Waray weapons such as pulajanes garabs posted here by several members of this forum to study and compare.

Regards,

Bangkaya

[Battara]

Bangkaya, you do have a good point of the flower not being in the middle of the scabbard of the typical Moro scabbard. I am with you with the gunong perhaps not being Moro, though I am still of the opinion that the piece may be later.