Introduction:

We will be putting up for auction ~60 tribal pieces from the tribal regions in the Philippines, notably from the Mountain Province on Luzon but one or two from Mindanao. See these in Photos 9 to 12. Most of these antique primitive Mt. Province-region tribal pieces are from the so-called Ifugao people, the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera in northern Luzon, Philippines. These people are often referred to as the Cordilleran peoples. 

We lived in the Philippines for a decade beginning in 1985. Several times we visited the rugged Mountain Province in northern Luzon and the magnificent rice terraces there, north of Bagio City. Our interest in the life of these peoples was piqued, and as a consequence we built up a modest collection of "primitive artifacts." This collection is wide, most is Colonial era of the early 20th century, it includes a magnificent plow, hut ladder, spear, drum, many baskets of various types and utilities, wooden bowls and other wooden objects some with animal or human forms, spoons, textiles, beaded bags, rattan woven hats worn by older men, a rice cutting tool, betel box, gong, and Bulul (rice god) figures on several.

We purchased most of these piece from 1986 to 1989. Almost all were purchased from highly reputable dealers, for example, The Tribal Arts House of Henry N. Beyer in Manila, Tawalisi Antiques of Maria Roxas in Manila, Tucucan Antiques in Bagio City, Artifact and Baskets of Mary Ngalawen in Manila, Herencia Arts & Antiques in Manila. We also purchased pieces at small local shops in Bontoc, the principal city in the Mountain Province.

Please read everything, ask questions, and request more pictures. If you are in Japan, China or the Philippines, and want to bid on a piece, please write to me before bidding. The shipping cost does not include for overseas shipping. An adjustment must be made to shipping. Also, I can combine shipping but the rate needs to reflect the larger shipping box and higher weight. We will ensure the piece is packed well.

The auction item:

Rice cultivation at the magnificent world renowned Rice Terraces at Banaue is what the Mt. Province is about, as seen in this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaue_Rice_Terraces. To harvest that rice before industrial time the Ifugao used a hand-held Rice Harvesting Knife or Finger Knife, called in the Mt. Province a Gamulang, as detailed in construction and showing how to use the tool here: https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13002-016-0124-9. More interestingly, the Ifugao finger knife is a cutting tool used specifically for Ifugao rice varieties, as detailed here: https://ifugaoheritagegalleries.ss.ucla.edu/finger-knife-gamlang/. This clever iconic tool is made of iron for the blade, and uniquely from carabao horn for the handle. The handle is 18cm long, and 10.5cm wide at the blade, or 7" by ~4" wide. The knife handle of carabao horn was hand-carved and shaped, and even so it shows remarkable style and design. This very old knife "Gamulang" shows its use in several ways, firstly see the iron blade that is well worn in the center from use, and second, see the wear in the carabao horn handle near the blade. We saw only one of these knives with carabao horn in our near-decade in the Philippines. We know this is old, likely 19th century or very early 20th century and it clearly was a used tool in the Banaue Ifugao region of the Mt. Province. This unique knife we prized since it represents the ingenuity and determination of a people for survival in the Mt. Province.

BTW, no pets, no smoking.

Our story:

We lived in the Philippines for nearly a decade beginning in 1985. From 1986 to 1989, we collected a number of old tribal artifacts. Our pieces were represented as being from the late 19th century to pre-WWII.  We are now selling these pieces as we downsize. We are not experts, we cannot authenticate our pieces. These pieces, the vast majority at least, look quite old. We genuinely believe these are vintage genuine pieces, each with their own charm. Just holding an item that may be 120 to 70 years old from the Mountain Provence of the Philippines makes for great conversation. 

Two sources we've relied on are, "The People and Art of the Philippines", by Father Gabriel Casal, Regalado Trota Jose, Jr. and others, 1981, Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles. The second was published in July-August 1983, in Arts of Asia, "Northern Philippines Primitive Wooden Art," by Pynky Gomez Garcia, pages 84-93. 


Thank you for looking.