Sword (Kalis or Sundang) (before 1918): Art, History and Details

Sword (Kalis or Sundang) (before 1918) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This sword’s blade is straight near the tip and transitions into gentle undulations toward the lower half. The guard consists of pierced okir wings, secured on one side by a single asang-asang clamp (also called baca-baca by the Maranao). The hilt is wrapped in dark fiber or rattan bindings and metal ferrules, and fitted with a small, comparatively modest cockatoo (kakatua) form.

Object facts

• Title: Sword (Kalis or Sundang)
• Date: before 1918
• Culture: Philippines, Mindanao
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: Blade: metal; handle: metal with silver and braided twine; pommel: ivory
• Dimensions: Overall: 61 cm (24 in.); Blade: 49 cm (19 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Oceanic Art
• Department: Oceania
• Accession number: 1918.649

A detail from the museum

The asang-asang—literally “fish gill”—stabilizes the blade while referencing the purifying quality attributed to fish gills.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.