Another Dha: I am puzzled
 

This one had one price reduction after another and stll nothing happens..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1
It seems decent enough, in a good shape...
What am I missing?
The price is still outrageous? Or, is there a catch?
Dhafia, please explain.

I've watched this one not reach reserve a few times. It really is a nice, real (user) sword, but newly made. As such, it is priced higher than I'd be willing to pay.

Apparantly the market agrees with me. :shrug:

For my part, to be honest I'm just not grabbed by the way it looks. I am getting very picky, though, and I have three of basically this style already.

I like this one quite a lot, but the seller wants to start just above what would be most peoples final bid :rolleyes: .

The belly 's a little too big for this design (Hua Bua, one of Ayuthaya style). The seller did not mention about its tip but you may notice. The blade was forged out from another blade. From the way fuller is, its former shape might be sabre. Scabbard looks nice but the hilt seemd to be overpolished as the seller told. IMHO, another mix and match stuff. If the blade 's harden, it 's for custom made personal (household/home defend) use. If the blade 's not harden, just another tourist fooling stuff with nice old scabbard..

Not impressed
 

My thoughts too Puff. Probably reworked, with a few too many recent additions to pretty it up.

Ian.

...exactly! The blade is not old and the quality of the blade is poor, especially the fullering. The hilt is either new or totally reworked. I sure could use that baldric, though, on some of mine that are missing their's!

My eye is getting dull, I guess. :( This looks new to me, but not that bad. Certainly it's of far better quality than the tourist stuff we see so often.

I agree with you that the blade is far better than those mass-produced tourist piece in the market. The sword was custom made not long time ago (I means 50 yo or less) for an unknown purpose . It 's not very new either. Newer blades are mostly made of old leaf spring or carbon steel but old sabre seems to be the material for this one. And the black lacquere on the handle 's not popularly used anymore. In short, only the price 's not right. I would pay only a portion above "buy it now" stuff for this piece. :D

Puff, you raised an interesting question for me in that last post, when you said that the black lacquered handle is not something that is popular any more. Can you point out any stylistic or manufacturing or material characteristics of daab that reflect a certain date or era? I find the Ayutthaya & Rattanakosin styles fairly easy to identify, but I am sure there are other indications that can pin-point a date more precisely. Both "Ayutthaya Period" and "Rattanokosin Period" cover many centuries, and styles & methods must have evolved during those periods

The thing that vexes me most in my study of dha and daab is the lack of a chronological frame of reference. For example, there are two pretty distinct styles of Shan dha, but whether or not they are regional variations, ethnic variations, or chronological variations is something I just don't know. It would be great to be able to say "This one was made between ____ and ____, because that is when the button pommel was used," or "Black lacquer was used on handles starting around _____, then fell out of popularity by about _____."

It 's quite difficult to pinpoint or even estimate age for SEA blades because of huge gap between city an rural area. Due to bad logistic, most of westernized stuff are concentrated in the city. The oldest rail tract 's only 100 yo (and our subway is only 3 yo :D ) When Ayuthaya people using firearms in their army, Lanna people rarely see them. And when city craftmen using modern lacquere for years, people in the rural area still using black resin. As you may notice from several <50 yo blades. While Aranyik craftmen choose rounded hardwood for their hilt. Lampang craftment still using rattan rope but modern clear lacquere is often used as coat material. While some other rural area still using "Rak" or black resin for coating material. And in modern day (says 20 years), "Rak" 's rarely produced since all furniture factory choose modern cheaper wood vanish. That make "Rak" 's being expensive and used only for antique restoration or custom made stuff.
Regarding to the pommels, which are often associated with better made blades, uncarved handle. Those are in Ayuthaya period are likely to be appear in lotus figure. And later, when Rattanakosin people deveopted another style of art (finer and more detailed). The Buttons are evolved to be "less" lotus such as onion or pumpkin with many lobes or even clear conical thing.

I will try my best to your "fill in the blank" test. :D
Not very precise, though. :D

"This one was made between Mid- and Late Rattanakosin, because that is when the button pommel was used," or "Black lacquer was used on handles starting around old day (early Ayuthaya, I guessed), then fell out of popularity by about Late Rattanakosin."

Great stuff
 

PUFF:

You're an important treasure trove of dha/daab information. :D Please do keep refining the time scales because these are helpful and necessary for our dating schemes. Much appreciated.

Ian.

Thanks!
 

Great information. Every little bit is a treasure, because we are so in the dark over here. :)

I wish I could do better. I 'm just a novice in this area. But I 'm happy to share what I 've learn from experts in my area. I may need some more time to polish my skill and knowledge to get a very precise information/ID such as ID by those experts. But I will do my best and keep my information accurate as much as possible. ;)

You guys have nice collections, some pieces and some information are far better than many in the Thai national museum. :D I could learn many thing from you guys either :D