Cleveland Museum of Art
Sword (Barong)
- Date
- c. 1800s
- Medium
- Blade: steel; handle: silver with braided wire; pommel: ivory with carabao horn inlay
- Culture
- Philippines
- Department
- Oceania
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 97112
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
This sword has a broad, leaf-shaped blade characteristic of the Sulu Archipelago. Its profile suggests it was used for powerful cut-and-slash fighting. The ivory pommel, inlaid with black hardwood, takes the form of a stylized cockatoo ( kakatua ). This feature, along with the finely worked horn grip, indicates that this was a prestige weapon owned by a member of the warrior nobility. The grip is made of carabao horn, a draft animal similar to the water buffalo.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of J. H. Wade
- Provenance
- ?–1916: Mr. Jeptha Homer Wade II [1857–1926], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1916–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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