My apologies on the photography in this post. They didn't allow photos and while I did try to get permission it was going to take longer than I had left in country to gain it. Soooo... I had the wife run interference while I snapped from the hip with flash off. You can get the jist of some of the construction and an overall impression so it may be valuable to some out there.
First picture just to show you the volume of swords they had.
These next styles are what they are reffering to as Bangkok era darb. All had silver handles and scabbards. Some may notice the scabbards of the chinese jian above this. They told me that some Thai officers preffered this type that's why they are in the armory.
This next lot I was told were the swords of the common warriors / house guards. Apart from their current appalling condition and the fact that many are missing their pommels you can note that most (despite the green stains) are wooden handled and wooden scabbards with brass fittings. There were three distinct handle variations to these. 2nd from left you can make out (I hope) a spiral design carved into the handle. Another batch had a spiral zigzag pattern and third (far right) had lateral grooves/udulations. I questioned Mrs. Nattapat (director of research at SPAFA) about this and she told me that each unit had its own design. JT, you probably recognize the one style as that of the contemporary darb you just picked up.
This next picture is what they refer to as the late Ayutthaya style. You can't note it in this picture but most of these had remnants of neillo work.
Another lousy photo but these are the swords of high ranking officials. All had tooled silver handles and scabbards some with gold trim. Definately the case to see if you get over there. Of note is that two of them had scabbards that tapered to a point, sorry no explaination.
A surprise to me was the badek. During the same interview with Mrs. Nattapat she took particular note of the photo of Mark's display and when I mentioned that Mark put in the badek to fill a space and it wasn't Thai, she said that many of the Thai mid-grade officers carried one.
The keris, though not a complete surprise as the coat of arms of the king has crossed darb and keris, the sheer number and size of the keris astounded me. All were extremely large most in the 2-2 1/2 foot length, the majority of a bugis style. All the arches were covered with these and all of the many museum that I visited had keris in residence. I saw several photos and illustrations from the Rama IV and prior eras that showed officials and high ranking officers carrying both a keris and a darb.
and yes even a few parang on the walls (to the right)
Last note was the quantity of Japanese style swords that were there (sorry those pictures weren't worth posting. This style of sword was favored by many of the upper-class. Mrs. Nattapat noted a active trade in blades in exchange for rayskin and such, but the handles and scabbards were made in Siam. They did note on placard below the Japanese style blades that around 1600 many Japanese were working in the Kingdom. One particular individual, Yamada Nagasama, petitioned the king and received approval to put together a volunteer force of some 300, all Japanese. This same individual eventually was awarded "Chao Phraya" status the highest status attainable in the Kingdom.
We (Mike Ngyuen and I) did get access to the National Museum and while I was unable to return to Bangkok, Mike was able to take that opportunity to get some photos. He will put together a gallery soon and we'll let you know when he has it up.