Hill tribe sword
 

Hello. Bought this on a whim (offer accepted on Ebay). The handle looks Muong from Northern Vietnam to me (I've add photo of Myong knife I collected in 2009) but curious about the blade, particularly the engravings. I'm guessing European on origin but not sure. Any thoughts?

Hi Jeff,

When I first looked at your pictures a Philippines Luzon origin comes to my mind, this also would explain the engravings on the blade. Are the handle mounts from iron? Is the tang peened at the end from the handle?
See here a similar handle style, taken from an older thread. I really don't think that your sword is a hill tribe sword/blade.

Regards,
Detlef

Good point. I won't have it in hand for awhile so won't know if there is a peen, but the handle also certainly matches your example. The blade, of course, is not hill tribe but I wouldn't be surprised to see a trade blade repurposed for use. Does the carving motif style look familiar from Philippines examples?

Hi,
The blade decoration is somewhat reminiscent of some European court/small swords.
Regards,
Norman.

Yes, that is what was the type of thing I was wondering. Hopefully there will be more clues.

Hi Jeff,

I thought the same as Detlef. This might well be a Spanish Colonial blade, with decorations consistent with that origin. The handle would be locally made in the Philippines. If so, that blade would be no later than 19th C and perhaps earlier. (Might be worth running it by the Euro Forum guys when you have a chance to clean it a bit to show the decorations more clearly.)

I've been finding a few items like this lately--Spanish Colonial arms from the Philippines--having not seen much over the last 30+ years.