30th June 2024, 05:17 AM | #1 |
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Upper class Datu ivory, swassa, and silver barong
Greetings folks,
I acquired this from Rsword months ago. It was on my wish list. It is an upper class datu Sulu barong. The pommel is ivory, the hilt made of silver, silver woven bands, and bands of swassa. The blade is laminated with a tiny round opening on one part of the edge. What is nice is that it has the original carved Tausug scabbard. I have only seen 5 of these - and the fifth is this one. The Metropolitan Museum in New York has one, but with a pieced pommel and a blade with silver inlays. Enjoy. |
30th June 2024, 05:18 AM | #2 |
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Here are close ups of the scabbard and blade.
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30th June 2024, 05:21 AM | #3 |
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For comparison, here is the one from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. No scabbard is present for this example.
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30th June 2024, 06:10 PM | #4 |
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Congrats B. It looks elegant.
Dimensions? Do you think the divot on the blades edge is a forging flaw or something else? |
1st July 2024, 12:47 AM | #5 |
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Congrats Jose ...
Lovely barung! Beautiful older style pommel. Would you say early 19th C? That looks like a small caliber hole in the blade. Maybe a shotgun pellet? Shotguns were used by the US military and others in their quarrels with the Moros.
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1st July 2024, 06:16 AM | #6 |
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Thank you gents.
In scabbard the overall length is 27 3/4 inches or 69.38 cm. I would say 19c. Early.....hmm. Perhaps. Blade is large though (18 inches or 45 cm). I would not place this as an early piece like 18c or early 19c. Maybe mid 19c or later, but not 20c. Early barong blades I thought were smaller, kind of following the kris/sundang examples in the 18c to early 19c. Buckshot - never occurred to me. It would fit the section and it is round and does not go through the other side. Very helpful. Not much info on this class of barong, but with materials it goes to a much more prominent datu. I have a picture of the Sultan of Sulu at the turn of the 20c with a barong that looks a lot like this one, but unfortunately is black and white, and fuzzy. I first thought this might be a sultan class barong, but I can't find any more info or attribution to a sultan class, so I must hold this as only a possible hypothesis with little proof. Still this was on my wish list. I love my bling. |
1st July 2024, 01:50 PM | #7 |
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Yes, that length would be long for an early 19th C barung. Perhaps second half of the 19th C, as you pointed out.
The amount of swassa on the hilt is less than I would expect for a Sultan. Perhaps for a member of the Royal House or a high level official, such as a panglima. |
1st July 2024, 04:19 PM | #8 |
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If I may add a bit of trivia- any member of the nobility may have carried this; I usually call such as "nobility blades." Moro blades with expensive materials and high craftmanship may be commissioned by any member of the nobility- and this was not limited to those with rank in royalty or military, but also to affluent members of the populace- merchants, shopkeepers- and those invaluable to the community, such as council of elders, priests, sorcerers, even highly successful and senior blacksmiths and artisans.
I've been told by Moro elders that "Datu-class" and "Sultan-class" aren't accurate in describing these weapons, as many of these were owned not by the Datu nor Sultan, but by other members of the nobility. It was not uncommon for non-royalty nobles to have flashier and more expensive blades than royalty. There are even oral traditions of Sulu rulers who would gift noteworthy non-nobility subjects with ivory-pommel blades, while keeping modest blades for themselves. Certain royalty, from Datu all the way up to the Sultan, preferred to carry these modest blades,because they valued these blades' intrinsic value as their pusaka (heirloom). Then there were also Datu and Sultan who preferred foreign or modern weapons, such as sabers and guns. Nevertheless, that's a very nice nobility barung |
1st July 2024, 05:26 PM | #9 |
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Congrats Jose, very nice barung!
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1st July 2024, 05:39 PM | #10 | |
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1st July 2024, 05:46 PM | #11 | |
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Quote:
And the very interesting thing...is that the Luzon and Visayan peoples had their own practices as well; they also had nobility blades after all. |
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1st July 2024, 05:46 PM | #12 |
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1st July 2024, 11:37 PM | #13 | |
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Quote:
I don't think a shotgun pellet, made of lead as it would have been in the day, would be able to punch through the blade in question. There was a descussion a few years ago about a barong that had experienced a losing battle with a firearm. It was pointed out at the time that a lead bullet of military caliber (.38 at the time) would have destrroyed the sheath as well as not have made a clean hole through the barong. It was agreed that the weapon in question might well have been a Mauser model 1896, which fires a jacketed bullet of 7.63 mm. (Discussed on pg 2 of this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=mauser&page=2) I have no idea of the measurement of Battara's damage site. I merely recouunt the tale of a somewhat similar wound. |
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2nd July 2024, 12:01 AM | #14 |
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Thank you for the information folks.
Xasterix I thought only nobility were allowed to wear top materials like ivory, swassa, etc. Regarding the area of "damage" it is 2 mm in diameter. Maybe a forging bubble ? |
2nd July 2024, 09:45 AM | #15 | |
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Quote:
Royalty = Datu, Sultan, etc, considered as members of nobility class Nobility class = doesn't automatically mean (or limited to) royalty; includes ranking military officers, community leaders, merchants, dignitaries, etc Then there are oral traditions of nobility-tier blades being awarded to non-nobility, or gifted to outsiders. Last edited by xasterix; 2nd July 2024 at 11:30 AM. |
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3rd July 2024, 01:48 AM | #16 | |
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3rd July 2024, 03:25 AM | #17 |
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Thanks Xasterix.
Also very true about giving high status gifts to noted strangers, foreign dignitaries, etc. |
4th July 2024, 03:29 AM | #18 |
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By the way, this is how I originally got the piece. I etched the blade, cleaned up the hilt and took off the former "repair" tail off and did my best to repair/restore the tail.
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5th July 2024, 02:05 AM | #19 |
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5th July 2024, 11:34 AM | #20 | |
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But this is my opinion... |
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6th July 2024, 12:41 AM | #21 |
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Actually it is custom to etch the blade on these pieces. I'm following tradition.
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