Hi Naga,
Not an expert by any means and I apologize for any mistakes that I may be putting down here, but I've made it something of a hobby picking up these cheaper pieces and have occassionally turned up some very fine stuff. I apologize if I'm telling you things you already know, but if you are going to go back and buy from that "brick and mortar" dealer, make sure the piece in question has an insert edge (qiangang). Modern "fakers" may use pattern welded steel (the pattern of which doesn't really resemble most of the "real" antiques in my limited experience), but do not usually add the insert edge. It would become cost prohibitive to do so.
Whilst I can't say anything about the legal ramifications of buying from this dealer, or if this dealer is who I think he/she is, I can say that from the pictures provided you can clearly see the line demarcating the body of the dao and the insert edge. In fact, at some spots there are signs of either cold shuts or delamination at the weld between the body and edge.
However, this dao in question is a very typical duan dao (short saber) from the late Qing, a dime a dozen really. These things were then often used right up to the Chinese civil war (a most vivid (and depressing) picture is one reproduced in China, A New History by Fairbanks and Goldman, ISBN 0-674-11673-9, plate 39; which shows young children of the Communist forces posing with dao in hand. One of the children is holding a willowleaf type dao, but none-the-less similar to the piece in discussion). Thus the scabbard is very new and the grip is most likely a later replacement. If you wait around long enough, sometimes you see these pieces (or decorative "bazaar" versions) being sold en suite with rayskin scabbards on ebay from American sellers so....
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