Great information, Puff. Your direct knowledge of Thai swords and techniques is wonderful to have.
Titus, the dha on my web site come from a large number of kind contributors, as well as from my own collection. The first ones, without a "C" prefix to the number, are my own. The others, designated with a number "C####" are ones contributed by other collectors.
You can see the rings Puff refers to in the bottom two swords in the post of Thai daab, and in the third sword in the post of Shan dha. In the Thai post, the swords date, from top to bottom, Ayutthaya period (probably somewhere in the middle, the 15th-16th century we are told), Lanna (northern Tai, no firm date), Lanna (same), Rattanakosin period (1768-present, this one probably 19th C), and Rattanakosin period but in the style of the Ayutthaya period.
I do not think that the Rattanakosin period can be said to be one of decline. You are correct that it followed the destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese, which naturally caused a set-back culturally speaking, since energies were devoted to re-building the country. But very quickly the Chakra kings revived and reinvigorated Thai culture and the arts, including the martial arts. As you can see from just the two swords I posted, they lost little or nothing in terms of swordmaking and silversmithing expertise.
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