Lumad Kampilan aka Cuban Bolo Knife?

[kai]

Hello Albert,

That's an absolutely gorgeous piece - congrats!

There was such person in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War.
It would be impossible to verify if Mr. Vandermark, actually carried this into battle. It is possible that this sword landed in Cuba via a Spanish ship sailing from the Philippines during the inquisition, but really?

I think, earliest the label was placed on the scabbard would have been late 1963, that’s when the U.S. Postal Service amended the 2 letter state code.

Have you checked lists for during the Span.-Am. war period and until WW2, too?

I believe there is pretty much zero chance this piece already entered the rural eastern US before the civil war and ending up with an inhabitant of a really small confederate town who happened to decide fighting for the Union, instead. Much less the twigs surviving active service in the field rather than being used as fire starter...

This could easily have been picked up by a serviceman during the Span-Am war or even later during the US colonial period. (The label mentions service but not war.)

Apparently, the label got written quite a bit later. Maybe the later owner worked from memory and merely mixed up islands?

Around the scabbard are small branches/twigs and a section of black coral.

Anting-anting, I guess?

Regards,
Kai