[Mark]

Here is a little something that I just picked up, with some help from our man on the ground in Thailand. It is a Burmese story dha, with a stag horn handle and pommel, equisitely carved. The scabbard is chased silver, with eight panels on each side depicting different figures which I think are either characters in the story shown on the blade, or are nat (spirits). There are eight on each side, all different, but some similar which might be different depictions of the same person, and there is a deer on each side in the last panel. The scabbard has an engraved dedication: "This sword belongs to Tha Toe Thi Yi General Min Hla Ye Khaung 1160." The Burmese date corresponds to 1798 in the Julian calender. The blade needs some cleaning, but other than that (and a sloppy repair with epoxy that I am slowly removing), it is in perfect condition). Enjoy.