Luzon Bolo/Matulis?
 

Being mainly a Philippine collector, I realized recently that a big gap in my collection are pieces from Luzon.

With this realization came this recent acquisition. Interesting piece I won on fleabay. All pics are the auction seller's.

The reason why I am posting this is not only is my Luzon collection a bit thin, but so is general knowledge regarding Luzon pieces themselves.

How old would this one be? Katipunan-era? Anything noteworthy about this piece? I notice that leaf/vine motif is a common theme with nicer pieces with silver (I assume from pics) mounts like this. Is there any significance to that?

Also, would we be able to discern by blade shape or handle shape or manufacture style which area of Luzon this came from? Does anyone have any pieces of similar manufacture?

(Jose and Ron, I await your input with anticipation :D )

Can't help by your questions but it is a beautiful Matulis, please post pictures with the cleaned up silver when you have received it! :)

Regards,

Detlef

Beautiful piece, I saw in EBay but finally I didn,t bid, If nobody had bid and seller had relisted maybe I had bid, is a great piece !!
Congratulations and if in the future you decide to sellit ...please remember me ;)

best regards
carlos-

Congratulations! I almost went for this myself, except I ran out of money just before it ended. :o

I would hazard a guess from the blade profile that it is mid-southern Luzon, placing this as possibly a Tagalog piece. Probably belonging to an officer due to the stars, the silver, and the carved horn. Since it uses 3 silver stars like this, I would also assume that it is not Katipunan but 1st Republic/Philippine Revolutionary period (3 stars for the 3 main island groups in unity), meaning 1898-1901.

The original scabbard would have been made of black leather with silver mounts, probably with the Malayan sun face and 3 stars within a triangle.

Oh yes, the vine motif like this is usually reserved for upper Philippine Revolutionary ranks, perhaps the rank of general.

If you could get provenance on this that would be spectacular (if it exists).

Thanks, Jose! That's really helpful for me. I wasn't aware that the triple star symbolism wasn't in use until aguinaldo's republic was established. The use of vine motif as rank signification is something I was unaware of as well.

Doing a quick search of these forums I also found this post regarding the distinction between Katipunan and 1st republic pieces along with some historical context by Dimasalang.

Using that bit of info as well, could we posit that this was a Philippine Republic-era piece (as evidenced by the Luz-vi-min stars) that belonged to someone who was once a high ranking katipunan member (as evidenced by the vine motif carving) or did the Vines become a more stylistic choice on the panday's part after the Katipunan organization was dissolved?

Very nice piece. I too was eyeing this one, but could not find the extra funds for it. :D A friend of mine badly wanted this one also. Either way, I am very happy to see it now in the hands of a collector here. The 3 stars definitely place it in the 1st Philippine Republic time frame. :)