17th German burgonet

[Lansquenet59]

Hi,
Here is a burgonet that I just had recently, probably German, I spotted a small marking of 3 points on the visor, it can be the marking of an arsenal?

[fernando]

Splendid,Thomas :cool: .
The three dots; you mean those faded marks ?


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[Lansquenet59]

Yes Fernado ;)

[fernando]

If they were meant to be marks, they would be more visible (deeper) ?

[Lansquenet59]

You are probably right Fernando. I thought I already had these 3 points somewhere, but I could be wrong.

[fernando]

Places you see them are in early 'cannonry' as in these two of mine.


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[fernando]

And four dots ;).


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[Lansquenet59]

But what do these points mean Fernando ?

[fernando]

I don't recall anyone establishing their precise purpose. I would take it as a decoration, maybe sometimes with a mystic intent, but not a smith mark or 'signature'. You can see them in weapons as early as from the XVI century (if not earlier); sometimes added to other symbols but so often alone. You can see them also in number of four.
Maybe more knowledge members know more about this suject.

[Victrix]

These dot marks seem to appear on a variety of iron and steel items and presumably used to identify production batches (i.e. some sort of batch mark?). I have seen similar dots on cast iron pans in the US. It may have been used to identify the maker in a workshop shared by several smiths, or to show for which end customer it was intended. Probably the mark was intended for internal use only.

Then there are dots on sword blades which seem to have some sort of decorative and mystic/superstitious/religious meaning as Fernando alluded to. We discussed it previously here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=23282&page=10&pp=30.

There’s something here in post #20 as well. But I don’t think these are related to batch marks: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22313.

[Lansquenet59]

And maybe a quality control? We may never know....

[fernando]

I don't think so; a quality control mark would be restricted to certain type of things and to a determined area; not to say to a speficic arsenal.These dots appear 'everywhere'; so more consistent with decoration, mysticism, religion, exoterism ... pick one :cool: ;) .