Mystery knife

[Ian]

In the original post in this thread I mentioned that I owned a second of these knives, but at that time it had been misplaced in moving house twice in the last ten years. That knife has now been rediscovered, and I post this picture of the two of them. The smaller one on the bottom of the picture is the one added to this thread for the first time. The shape of the scabbard is different, and more closely resembles the traditional Pinatubo Negrito form as described by Fox and shown in the picture above of the Negrito man and young boy.

I post this other example because these knives and their scabbards are seldom seen and appear not to have been made for the tourist trade.

Ian.


Pair of Negrito hundang
.

[Sajen]

Thank you for showing this two rare examples Ian!

Regards,
Detlef

[Robert]

Yes, thank you for posting these Ian. As for age I think that because of the overall quality and workmanship displayed and the way that the scabbards are pinned together instead of using bands would date these to the 1930's/40's. I would also agree that these were made to be used and not for the tourist trade. If I remember correctly the process for the mass production of aluminum was discovered in the 1890's so it could have easily been introduced to the Philippines in the late 19th or early 20th century by American servicemen. One of the first uses of aluminum was making kitchen utensils (plates, cups pots and pans) so it could also have arrived in the Philippines any time from the late 1890's on through normal trade. Would it be possible for you to post one additional photo of these items showing the blades to go with the one showing them in their scabbards ? Congratulations for being able to find not only one, but two of these seemingly rare bolos and in such great condition as well. Of course you do realize now that you have shown these I will have to keep searching until I can find a nice example to add to my own collection.

Best,
Robert

[Ian]

Hi Robert. Picture of the two blades are attached. Difficult to get a good pic because the blades have been cleaned and polished. Will try to get a better shot when my usual light table is set up.

Ian

[Sajen]

Nice pair! Good to have two of them in different execution, congrats!

[Robert]

I thought that I would post yet another interesting variation of these rather unusual and seemingly rare swords for comparison. This piece has a tang that extends completely through the same style of hilt that can be seen on the one identified as a "katana" seen on the page from "The Philippine Journal Of Science Volume 81 - The Pinatubo Negritos" that is also posted below. The only serious damage to this looks to be the hilt being split either by age shrinkage to the horn or possibly rust build-up on the tang itself. As I just won this piece the photos that are shown of this are those from the auction. I am hoping that after it has arrived that I might be able to identify what the stampings on the blade read.

Best,
Robert

[Ian]

Thanks Robert. Another interesting example of these hard to find knives. We can find the same style of hilt among the Ilokano repertoire also, and I suspect the the Aeta/Negrito may have purchased/traded/copied them from local smiths and craftsmen.

According to the information provided by Miguel Diaz some time ago, this hilt would be called a linipit in the Ilokano dialect. It's also possible that the hilt may be of Tagalog origin as Pampanga is immediately adjacent to the Tagolog area around Manila.

Ian.