Sword from India

[Richard2]

Many years ago I wasn't married and therefore had more money to spend, so I would frequently visit a local pawn shop that had a lot of interesting guns. Once, when I bought a gun there, the shop owner gave me a free gift to go along with it. It was this sword. The guy who pawned the sword said that he had got it from India. I had always thought it was a tourist souvenir sword. I have recently been looking at India swords on the internet, and I cannot tell the difference between tourist reproductions and genuine swords, so I am posting this to get an opinion from somebody who knows about swords.

The blade is about 28 and 5/8 inches long. It is about 1 and 1/2 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick at the hilt. The hilt is brass, and appears to have been gilded. Some traces of the gilding remain in places. A picture of a dog casing a rabbit is on both sides of the hilt. The sheath is leather.

Thanks in advance for any opinions.

[Anderson]

Not your usual tourist junk. That's an interesting sword with some age. Blade would appear to be locally made rather than adapted from another sword.

[Richard2]

Thanks Anderson! For all of these years I thought it was probably a common tourist sword, because I got it free. I am glad to learn that it is not a usual tourist piece.