Help identifying a Brumese Sword c.1860

[RhysMichael]

First of all welcome to the forum. You will find a group of folks who like dha/darb here. A word of warning these swords are addictive.

This is definitely a dha ( or more precisely a dha-lwe ). Most of the time when I see weapons from that area with that thick black grease on it I am skeptical about them. That is often put on to make them look older in the pictures. That being said I personally do not think that is the case with this sword. The koftgari on the blade looks to be of good quality as does the metalwork and and niello with the handle. The silver looks to be of good quality. The style is consistant with other swords from Burma and a late 19th early 20th century date does not seem out of line with what I can tell from the pictures. Mark, Ian, Andrew, Puff and a few others here I am sure can tell you a great deal more. Not knowing what you paid ( and we do not do appraisals here ) I cannot say if you got a good deal but again from the pictures and not handling the sword I think it meets the description and is not a tourist piece

A picture of a similar one from the Macau exhibit
http://www.arscives.com/historysteel...221-mib06a.jpg

Here is the only niello handled dha I have

Some places to look for more info
http://dharesearch.bowditch.us/
http://www.arscives.com/historysteel...ea.article.htm

My few dha can be seen here
http://home.comcast.net/~jtcrosby/Dha.html ( but updates are needed a couple of the items on that page I no longer have and I have a couple that are not on it. )

If you ever decide to part with it feel free to look me up