English made Kacchin Dha...

[Andrew]

Jonathan, the blade on that dated dha is really special. The fittings are pedestrian, and the scabbard that appeared with it in the Oldman catalog is long-gone, but doesn't look particularly fancy or highly decorated.

Perhaps a master swordsman? The body-guard of a wealthy individual? A professional dueler? Soldier? We are only limited by our imagination.

Parenthetically, I have not been able to find anything significant about that 1880 date in Burma. It was during the reign of Burma's last monarch, Thibaw, and five years prior to the third Anglo-Burmese war and Burma's annexation by Britain.

I have never been able to capture the "pattern" in the crystalline-structured dha, but haven't tried with a modern hi-res digital camera recently. I know you're familiar with the difficulty--tilting the blade 'just so' in certain lighting and the pattern becomes visible.

Best,
A