Hi Iain,
I've been holding back in replying on this one until I could do some research to look for a similar example. Sadly, I have not found one.
This is a very unusual sword. The blade, as you noted, appears to be European in origin and is quite pitted from age and use. However, the hilt has me more intrigued. The grip tapers down approaching the pommel, and overall the central wooden section seems to have been turned on a lathe. The flanking ferrules appear to be silver, with some minimal twisted wire filigree ornamentation and a few engraved floral designs.
I have seen two similarly hilted swords, with grips that tapered like the subject of this post, but they had only a single (brass) ferrule adjacent to the blade. Those examples had straight blades with square tips. I have been unable to identify where they were from, but it has been suggested by others that they may be from the part of Yunnan adjacent to Jingpho (Kachin) areas in Burma. Another possibility may be NE India, including Assam.
While the subject of this thread has some similarities to mainland SE Asian dha, I don't think it is a dha as generally defined in those countries. Although the sword lacks a guard, the hilt and its decorations seem atypical for Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc.
Very interesting sword.
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