any ideas ?????

[Ian]

Hi Snody:

I've looked at these several times trying to think where in mainland SE Asia they may have been made. It's as though they are from everywhere and nowhere.

I'm inclined to think they are composites with a heavy influence from a European. First, the blades look to me as though the tips have been reworked. The thin fullers run through the end of the blade, which suggests that the spear point was not the original form. The thin fuller running just beneath the spine reminds me of some northern Thai/Lao/Southern Yunan daab, and these might have come from our old friends the Achang from HuSa in southern Yunan. The hilts look standard Thai/Lao to me, and perhaps not very old.

The two long knives are interesting. The large stag hilts look too big to be from the small deer in mainland SE Asia. Hence I think another source such as Europe or the U.S. The fittings are standard Thai/Burmese/Shan ... The down curved hilts are reminiscent of some ivory-hilted Burmese examples. The reasonably heavy blade is also consistent with some Burmese examples, but other areas of the region also had similar heavy-bladed knives.

Although the knives and swords came from the same collection, they don't necessarily have to be from the same region. Pushed to identify the origins of these interesting pieces, I would say they each have mixed parentage with evidence of newer hilts added to older blades. Given that they came from a British collection, I would say a recent owner had modified them and replaced the hilts. Some of the reworking of these pieces was likely done in mainland SE Asia.