Hi Brian,
I don’t only have it from Hendley and Egerton. I have the book ‘Indian Art at Delhi 1903’ by George Watt which is the official catalogue and guide to the exhibition held at Delhi. As any kind of art from all over India was represented at the exhibition, this should give us an idea of how frequent the different types of art were represented in the different regions. That a region was not represented with enamel work at the exhibition does not mean that enamel work could not have been made there, I would however think that if nice enamel work had been made in a region it would have been sent it to the exhibition.
Here are the names he mentions in the index. ‘Bernares, Bhawalpur, Bhuj, Bombay (school of art), Chamba, Delhi, Hazara, Jaipur, Jhalawar, Jodhpur, Kach, Kangra, Kashmir, Lahore, Lucknow and Multan.’
I won’t say that enamel was not made in south India, as I don’t know, but it seems as if, at least most of it was made in Punjab and Rajasthan, and I agree with you that Hendley was very fond of the northern part of India, so it is likely that he would prefer to write about enamel and other works from this area. With Watt it was somewhat different, as he was the author of the official catalogue for the 1903 exhibition, he had to deal with everything sent to the exhibition. It would however be interesting, as you suggest, to dig into enamels from the south, to see what is to be found – V&A would be a good place to start
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There is one more thing I should mention about the hilt, and that is that the dome can be removed and underneath it are two initials and a name written in the roman alphabet, it says “Made by V. J. & . Nathdwara”. Who or what V. J. is, is unknown, Nathdwara is an Indian surname and the name of an old town in Rajasthan about 100 km south of Jodhpur.