PHILIPPINES: SULTAN OF SULU INSURRECTION FLAG.

SOLD TO BENEFIT THE ACQUISITION FUND OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO. LOTS 3 TO 12.
PHILIPPINES: SULTAN OF SULU INSURRECTION FLAG.
[Philippines: c. 1897-99.]
Cotton Moro Insurrection flag. 740 x 1150 mm, red ground with blue vertical stripe at the hoist, and a cut-in blue panel with five 5-pointed stars insewn into the blue panel, further sewn with figures of the kris and spear running parallel below the blue panel. A few small tears and holes, light marking and discoloration through age.
Provenance: William H. Tidwell (gift to the de Young Museum); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

A fine and very rare Sulu (Moro) insurrection flag, often designated in the literature as Sulu 3. It is typical of the flags used in the southernmost parts of the Philippines by the Moro people of the Sultanate of Sulu. A similar flag with crossed swords is to be found in the Zaricor Collection, Ca., and the Field Museum, Chicago has an identical flag to this example. The 5 stars represent the islands of the Sultanate, Sabah, Kalimantan, Palawan, Basilan and Sulu. The Sultanate of Sulu was established in 1405 in Northern Borneo by a Johore-based cleric, and became independent from the Bruneian Empire in 1561. From 1851 it became a protectorate of Spain under the Philippines, and in 1896 rose up against the Spanish occupiers, fighting a guerilla war that lasted with Spain until 1898, and then with the American forces who took over control of the Philippines from the Spanish. Numerous Guerilla groups established themselves across the islands, and this particular flag was likely captured by an American soldier during the US campaign in the region in 1899. The Sultanate did not officially surrender to American forces until 1915.