Gee Rick,
Are you saying we have a keris-shaped object here?
Perhaps it belongs in the Keris coffee shop
Or maybe it's just a case of keris envy.
Seriously, I agree with you on the work of the smith, which leads me to think that whoever commissioned it had some money to play with, and (potentially) a reason to do it. I can see Jim's point that perhaps it was supposed to be a flaming sword guarding some secret fraternity or other. However, Europe was crawling with secret fraternal organizations at the time, so I'm not sure how much help that is in figuring out its provenance. A big "FREEMASON SECRET WEAPON" stamp on the side would have been useful.
Another thing that strikes me as odd is that it appears to have an ambidextrous hilt (this is more obvious in the ebay posting. I'd expect to see a commissioned piece be right-handed (or, perhaps, left-handed). The symmetry of the piece is puzzling to me. See the pics below. Comments?
F