1: I'm not very good on continental swords from that period, but late 19th century Germany seems likely to me at least.
2: Folding in the hand guard makes it stick out less from the body, making the sword a bit easier to carry. It might also be one of those "cool things" which sell items without being of much practical use.
3: By the guard, it looks like it's for the right hand.
4: I've seen a few left handed swords, but they appear to be rare. Up until quite recently, there's been ideas that using the right hand was the right thing to do (something sinister about the left...), so those who were left handed were simply trained from childhood to sue their right hand instead for major tasks. I'm not sure when that started though.
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