An interesting Burmese dha

[Sajen]

I won recently at a German auction two old and interesting Burmese dha.

Here is one of them for sharing and discussion. Scabbard from wood and handle mounts from non ferric metal are gold painted and the ray skin at the handle is stitched with metal wire, normally the ray skin is nailed.
The slightly hollow blade is laminated, I cleaned the blade only from old grease and surface rust.

85 cm long inside scabbard.
83 cm long without.
Blade 64,5 cm.
Spine behind the handle 7 mm.
721 gram complete.

[Marc M.]

Interesting specimen, rye skin handle not come across yet, congratulations.
Regards
Marc

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Marc M.

Interesting specimen, rye skin handle not come across yet, congratulations.

Thank you Marc. The ray skin covered handle is a Burmese feature. But normally the ray skin is nailed, not stitched like by the example in question.
Attached are two pictures from another Burmese dha in my collection where the ray skin is nailed.

Regards,
Detlef

[Marc M.]

Surely you must have a reasonable collection of dha.
Very nice.
Regards
Marc

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Marc M.

Surely you must have a reasonable collection of dha.
Very nice.

A few only!

[kronckew]

[QUOTE=Sajen;298671.... But normally the ray skin is nailed, not stitched like by the example in question....[/QUOTE]


It looks like the 'stitching is wire.
Nice tho - looks better than nailing.

[Ian]

Hi Sajen,

The wire stitching of the ray skin (shagreen) is unusual but not unique on Burmese dha. I've seen a few examples.

Regards, Ian.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by kronckew

It looks like the 'stitching is wire.
Nice tho - looks better than nailing.

Hi Wayne,

Yes, the stitching is done with wire, like stated in post #1.

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

The wire stitching of the ray skin (shagreen) is unusual but not unique on Burmese dha. I've seen a few examples.

Hi Ian,

I've never seen this before, are you able to show examples?

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Detlef,

The examples I remember, maybe two or three, were not mine. It was some time ago and I don't recall where I saw them. Perhaps advertised in online auctions. Sorry.

Ian.