Gonzalo, that is a magnificent reference! Thank you for posting it as it clearly substantiates the Cuban attribution to these unusual fingerstalled weapons. I recall my first experience with one of these which I obtained about 13 years ago. It had provenance to Monterrey, Mexico and the blade was absolutely a blacksmith grade weapon with a heavy steel blade, unfullered, with these curvy motif stamps in repeated motif pattern most of its length.
With its provenance and heavy brass hilt with the same shape, fingerstalled and with crude shellguard and knucklebow added, much of the general thinking toward the piece was associated with the espada ancha of frontier regions in Mexico.
Some years later I was fortunate to have some good discussions with a former curator of an Arizona museum who indicated that one of these had once been among thier holdings, and the concensus was that it was from Cuba. In a catalog of a well known dealer whose name I will not note, there were two of these captioned as Algerian swords! Later, another of these turned up in an auction in London, listed as Mexican.
This reference seems excellent, and concurs with several other sources who claim these weapons, in some slight variations, were brought home by troops returning from the Spanish American war in both Cuba and the Philippines.
Thank you Gonzalo for the outstanding reference, which I can now add to my notes, and we can consider this one pretty much resolved
Nicely done, and the follow through very much appreciated.
All the best,
JIm
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