Frontier cuirass c. 1720 believed Pueblo Indian in Spanish Style

[Jim McDougall]

I need help with this from those of you specializing in Filipino armor, as there are proponents who claim this is from the Philippines. These individuals offer no examples or proof, and as far as I have found, Filipino armor forms are from pre-Spanish contact Muslim coats of mail (I cannot recall term).

The Filipino examples I have seen are of mail connecting plates of bone or leather in panels much like brigandine.

This frontier example is interestingly of CUIR BOULLI which is boiled rawhide which is molded into shape, dried and hardened.
This is contrary to the typical cuera (leather jackets) of the Spanish frontiers which were long jackets made of multi layered hides, obviously for protection from arrows.

I would really appreciate help on this and to know if there are any examples or evidence of Filipino use of cuir bouilli or this type of design in body armor.

[Jim McDougall]

The frontier armor I am researching is believed to be Pueblo tribe, allied with Spanish c.1680-1720 made in cuir boulli, which is of boiled bull hide, dried, shaped and hardened. ...the breast plate and back secured by lashings.
The skirted tassets are of rawhide and as with the entire assembly based on Spanish type armor of previous century.

The use of antiquated and obsolete equipage in the New World was of course typical as the expeditions from the time of the conquistadors were comprised of mostly private individuals, not militarily supplied forces.

This particular element of armor appears to be unique as it is of cuir boulli rather than the heavily layered hides used to construct the more ubiquitous leather jackets (cuera) used throughout the Spanish colonies in the frontiers.

There have been unsubstantiated claims claiming this is from the Philippines, which as far as I can see incorrect, as the armor of the Moros is of entirely different construction, based apparently on the Islamic armor from trade and contact from India and Arab traders long before Spanish arrival in 16th c.
These armors open from front and are of plates connected by mail (typically brass in the Filipino examples).

The only instances of leather use seem to be of lacquered form (not cuir boulli) and probably water buffalo (carabou) as the horns of these animals are typically used for the plates of the armor.

I would very much appreciate the opinions and comments of those of you out there who have expertise in these areas of collecting.

[Ian]

Jim,

I have only a passing understanding of Moro armour in the Philippines. While I see some commonalities with the boiled leather form you show, it does not resemble the construction of Moro armour that I have seen and you have described here.

Regards, Ian.

[Battara]

The Moros did make leather armour. I'll look through my records to see if I have a picture.

[Battara]

Here is one picture I have of Mabagani's leather suit of Moro armour.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Battara

Here is one picture I have of Mabagani's leather suit of Moro armour.

This is wonderful!! Can we find detail on this armor? I presume it is 1800s. Is there a way to reach the owner of this? Was there a tradition of using cuir boulli (boiled hide) in the Philippines, or was it leather coated with lacquer?

It would seen that leather use in the tropical climate would be less than durable.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you so much guys! This is very important.
I have browsed through everything I can find online, but absolutely nothing I can find comes close to this unusual example. It has a long history in the American Southwest, but was only rediscovered in recent years in an obscure estate sale, and has since been both on display in several venues as well as enduring notable controversies.

As there is not a single example of comparable armor anywhere of this material and from the Spanish frontiers of the 17th into 18th c. it is not possible to evaluate on this basis. The Philippine suggestion I take as rather a 'drawing at straws' solution which has yet to offer any supported evidence.

The most important comparison, virtually the only one, is depictions of Spanish soldiers and Pueblo allies in an obscure event in 1720 in Nebraska (the Villasur expedition) where they were massacred by Pawnee and Oto warriors under French forces. These type cuirasses with skirted rawhide in place of tassets are seen in the Indian produced hide painting. There are numerous details in these iconic works which were unknown in America until the 1980s when they were brought back from their holding in Lucerne, Switzerland since 1750s.
This is why this form of cuirass in cuir boulli has remained unknown, as the first notable reference to Spanish colonial arms and armor I am aware of is Curtis (1927). Obviously the well known cuera jackets (sewn hides) are described in various sources since, but this rare form has never been noted.There are few references on these topics, so this is most important.

[Jim McDougall]

Amazing, do we have more detail on this? period etc.
What type of leather?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Ian

Jim,

I have only a passing understanding of Moro armour in the Philippines. While I see some commonalities with the boiled leather form you show, it does not resemble the construction of Moro armour that I have seen and you have described here.

Regards, Ian.

Thank you Ian. This armor came out of an auction sometime in 1957 in California and was grouped with other Spanish colonial items including a morion. It was acquired by a renowned Arizona antiquarian named Gil Procter who operated a small museum previously held by Pete Kitchen, another legendary figure in Arizona history from the 1870s.
The cuirass was in this time on display from 1958 until Procters death in the 1960s. From here it with many other items it went into storage and obscurity until ultimately ending up in an estate sale over 20 years ago.
It was then acquired by an Arizona dealer and appraiser who is well known in American Indian and Spanish colonial arts and cultural items.

At no point in the entire time of this example has it ever been described as anything other than a very old Spanish leather cuirass, which were known to be in use in the Spanish southwest from end of 17th century into early 18th.

The difference in this type of armor from the regularly known type of leather armor is that this is of cuir boulli, a hardened rawhide of ox. The other more ubiquitous type is of buckskin, often deerhide, which is tanned and treated leather, in layers sewn together into a jacket (cuera) which was long and open in front.

In these times metal cuirasses were hard to come by in these remote frontier regions, and mail was also hard to maintain. The problem with these forms of armor was also they were not durable in the heat and climate, heavy and with mail, it did not protect well against arrows. In most cases, especially if mail had become compromised with rust or corrosion arrows could easily penetrate and worse, carry contaminated metal shards into the wounds.

In the cuir boulli cuirass shown here, there is question on the decorative elements and motif, indicating it resembles OKIR, which is a complex Philippine motif typically vegetal in character.

Here what I would point out is that in this period in New Spain in late 17th century, European art styles in baroque manner were well established with Indian artists, such as the Pueblo, who produced artwork which often combined their own styles with the baroque type decoration. This is the case with this armor which is believed to be represented in a painting of the massacre of the Spanish and Pueblo expedition from Santa Fe into Nebraska in 1720. This work is on buffalo hides and atypical of most Pueblo paintings typically produced in Santa Fe, which were more commonly ecclesiastic and Catholic oriented of course. Baroque art was a theme developed by Catholic Faith in early 17th century which held into mid 18th, and even longer in Spanish contexts.

As far as I have discovered, the construction of this rawhide cuirass is not consistent with any of the scale and mail armor assemblies of the Moro in the Philippines which are typically 19th c. and of carabou (water buffalo) and brass links. The presumably okir style decoration on them seems characteristically placed on the scales in brass cutout elements.

In this armor the decoration, in stylized baroque floral figures, is cut into the rawhide apparently after the hardening process.
In the construction of this armor, it is open at the side, where it was lashed together. Note the projections at the neck both front and back which were to prevent knife cuts, these not present of course on Moro armors.

Illustrated are okir style motifs left and baroque right

The cuirass, and the Pueblo painting of c. 1726 showing a Pueblo warrior wearing what appears to be this type armor, and what seems to be a representation of what Holz ("The Segesser Hide Paintings", 1970, Gottfried Holz). terms 'insignia'. This reference occurs pertaining to many of the over 46 other warriors in these paintings (Segesser II) with similar type armor.

The Mabagani armor shown in post #5 in my opinion does show tenuous similarity to elements of the discussed cuirass, but these may likely be to exposure to these types of earlier Spanish style armor sometime in the centuries the Spaniards were in the Philippines. While the Moros did not copy Spanish style armors typically, there seems to be an equal degree of copying of Spanish helmets, with a vestigial degree of elements such as the 'comb' on the morions ....but overall the Moro versions resemble burgonets.

[Jim McDougall]

I have a posting on the ethnographic forum which is titled 'Frontier Cuirass c.1720' as it has been held to be a Spanish leather (cuir boulli) cuirass for the past 70+ years.
An as yet unfounded claim made by an anonymous detractor has been made that it is Moro (Philippine) in origin based presumably on the resemblance in the decorative motif to okir. There appears to be an example which seems to be an anomaly of Moro rawhide armor (Mabagani) which has elements compellingly similar to those on this armor which appears to be 19th c as most other Moro armor regularly seen.

I wanted to post this here to reach those of you with expertise in these areas and hope that posted here it would be more visible.

I would very much knowing if anyone has seen Moro or other leather armor of this style construction or with such decorative motif.

Thanks very much.
Jim

[David]

Wrong forum for this Jim. I'm moving it to Ethno.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by David

Wrong forum for this Jim. I'm moving it to Ethno.

Thank you David, maybe with title specifying Moro someone with knowledge on these armors might come in here.

[Ian]

David, Jim already has a post on this subject in the Ethno Forum, so I'll combine the two just so we don't miss any important comments.

Ian.

[Jim McDougall]

This topic has become quite a learning experience for me, as though I have never been much involved in the arms and armor of these regions in the Philippine archipelago and Malaysian, Indonesian etc. I have always admired the posts, discussions of the complexities of the culture and weaponry, as well as the incredible expertise of members here in these fields.

What I have discovered is that there is apparently little knowledge or interest overall in the associated arms items such as the armor or helmets specifically. In searching through archives there are one of two incidental mentions, but seems these refer to late 19th, early 20th century and not of particular interest.
The actual period armors seem 19th century, almost invariably of plates and mail (brass) and can run into high values.

While I am very grateful for the hints and suggestions added here, I am surprised at the fact that so little information exists on the subject of these armors.

In my query my goal was to dispel the wildly placed rebuke by a thus far anonymous party that this rawhide (cuir boulli) armor of Spanish colonial association (Pueblo Indian, c. 1700, Santa Fe N.M.) is in fact Filipino (Moro).

As there seemed little interest (despite over 10,000 views in a week) in response, I thought perhaps the title was not piquing interest, as Spanish colonial topics tend not to draw much attention. Then thinking perhaps if I used the Moro term, and posted it on the keris forum where the interest in these areas is of course prevalent. That of course did not work out.

Sardonically, I began to think, if I had posted this as an extremely rare Moro armor, perhaps there would be a notable rebuttal against such a notion!

As it stands, the only references to Filipino armor I have found in it seems endless searches online and in our archives have only found mostly Moro examples, invariably 19th c. though other classifications such as Bagobo, Bugis etc. seem represented. The ONLY example of rawhide is the one shown by Jose, which belonged to Mabagani (who has long been gone from here, so no particulars are available).
Here I thank Jose again for that valuable example, and Rick and Ian for your insights on the elements and okir decoration, which are compelling.

The fact remains, my example is over 300 years old and of cuir boulli oxhide, the decoration seems to correspond with baroque style decoration carved into the leather. The style is taken from much earlier Spanish brigandine armor and tasseted cuirass' .
The pages showing similar from "Arms and Armor of the Conquistador 1492-1600), Walter Karcheski Jr.., Higgins Armory, 1990, p.3-4. Note the tassets seem to have been attached to the hip at bottom of cuirass. This was apparently Italian as was notable volume of arms and armor used by Spanish forces and expeditionaries.

Added are 'okir' decoration from Moro arms, and there does seem a notable similarity, however in my armor example the elements of decoration are also notable like various Pueblo symbols used in decoration of their material culture. It seems that Indian artist(s) who painted the Segesser paintings (c1726)depicting the stylized armor worn in the tragic battle of 1720 saw fit to specifically include the detail of the device (insignia?) on the tassets of the subject example. Naturally they are not exact, however these types of artworks often carry certain key details, while other detail might be foregone. That is why the inclusion of these devices in the armor seems to indicate a symbolic importance to the Pueblo that exceeded other overall details not included such as the triangular breastplate element and defined tasseting.