Tboli Kampilan for Assessment

[Ian]

Hi Xas,

That's a nice looking Tboli tok. As to age, it's always hard to say. However, one pointer is the degree of rubbing and wear to the brass/bronze hilt. Here the hilt shows little wear, while the blade shows no knicks or signs of repeated sharpening to indicate use over a lengthy period of time. The inserted dots towards the end of the blade are similar to the plugs seen on other tok, and these are copper or copper alloy in composition. It's possible you are looking at so-called white bronze if they appear to be "silver." I've attached an enhanced view of the blade and it appears these plugs have a yellowish hue.

The scabbard is atypical in some ways for a T'boli scabbard. In particular, it appears to lack the geometric carving seen on most tok scabbards and the textile wrap does not look T'boli to me, although Marbel can give you a better read than I can on the textiles. The scabbard textiles do show some rubbing, which one sees on older pieces, but rubbing can be created to give the impression of greater age. In the early 2000s I was told by a trusted dealer in Manila that the T'boli were getting children to wear swords around so that the scabbards could "age." Obviously some of these were being produced with the object of selling them to collectors and others interested in cultural items. [As an aside, well provenanced pieces from pre-WWII are particularly difficult to find.]

The use of bead strings to attach the hawk bells is seen occasionally, and may be a recent form of adornment. The traditional means of attachment is with brass chain links. Incidentally, the type of hawk bells shown are made by the T'boli from brass/bronze wire.

My best estimate for age of this one is late 20th C (say, 1980s on). The good news is that the blades on those made in the late 20th C were still good quality.

Ian