Question about a Dha

[Nathaniel]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Gav, does the handle of the cleaned sword look like the silver has some color to it? I wonder if that might not be a silver/copper alloy, which would account for the reddish-brown color of the patina.

I have some silver Thai swords of similar design where the silver patina turned a really nice, rich, lustrous midnight blue. A smalll polished area looked purely silver, but there is clearly an alloy metal there that caused a rather atypical patina color.

BTW, those two swords must be very troubling for you to keep track of--let me know if you want me to hold them for you.

Yes, I've definitely seen different patina's on Thai silver....I remember too seeing some antique silver jewelry that was a surprising dark midnight blue hue! Love to see some pictures of those beautiful midnight blues :P

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Nathaniel

Yes, I've definitely seen different patina's on Thai silver....I remember too seeing some antique silver jewelry that was a surprising dark midnight blue hue! Love to see some pictures of those beautiful midnight blues :P

Nathaniel, I have three swords with a very deep, blue patina. Don't have access to pics of the best one, however.

Here are pics from the HOS exhibition in Macau of my other two. Interstingly, in the light used to photograph them, the patina doesn't look blue--rather it looks quite brown in the one, and you can see hints of brown in the other (which, btw, has a handle very similar to Gav's beautiful matched set).

I think the vagaries of lighting, photography and computer monitor settings/quality are going to significantly affect our ability to really appreciate color and patina. No substitute for actually handling these...

[Battara]

Again not unusual. Silver patinas range from blue, yellow, brown, black.

[Andrew]

Agreed. However, the top one with the brown-looking patina in that photo is actually a dark blue patina in the hand!

Just pointing out that pics on the web aren't always helpful...

[Nathaniel]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Nathaniel, I have three swords with a very deep, blue patina. Don't have access to pics of the best one, however.

Here are pics from the HOS exhibition in Macau of my other two. Interstingly, in the light used to photograph them, the patina doesn't look blue--rather it looks quite brown in the one, and you can see hints of brown in the other (which, btw, has a handle very similar to Gav's beautiful matched set).

I think the vagaries of lighting, photography and computer monitor settings/quality are going to significantly affect our ability to really appreciate color and patina. No substitute for actually handling these...

Thanks Andrew Even though it doesn't show in the picture I can easily picture. I remember how surprised I was to see the definite blue hue of my auntie's antique jewelery. I never took a picture of them though...it would be interesting sometime to do that to see if I could get the blue to show up in a photo! Thanks for sharing.