Assistance required identifying origin & age etc of these Dhas

[Ian]

Hi Miguel:

Your dha sword no. 1 has a fairly high hilt:blade length ratio and some nice silver work that is probably Shan in origin. I would put this one as late 19th/early 20th C. Shan or northern Thai.

Dha sword no. 2 again has a fairly high hilt:blade length ratio and is probably northern Thai/Lao in origin. Early 20th C.

Knife no. 1 with lots of silver is typical Shan work. Probably mid-20th C. or a little earlier.

Knife no. 2 with the ivory hilt is Burmese and probably late 19th C.

As far as references for dha, I have not found a good reference in 20+ years of looking. There are bits and pieces in books that deal with a wide range of material culture from mainland SE Asia, but nothing comprehensive on dha that I have come across. There is the article and pictures from the History of Steel Exhibition, and the Dha Index that Mark Bowditch put together, which has a small bibliography

Ian.