Hello Fernando and A Senefelder,
Thank you for your comments.
Fernando, you are right this looks a lot like the katzbalger blade in this post
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...67&postcount=3
I didn't even think about katzbalgers because i dated this blade much later. Maybe the swordsmith was inspired by katzbalger blades.
In the unlikely case that this is indeed a shortened katzbalger blade i would have made the deal of my life...
As i wrote the crest is definitely that of William, Duke of Brunswick (1830-1884):
http://diglib.hab.de/?grafik=exlib-berlepsch-19-1-00130 *
The "honi soit..." motto is indeed from the Order of the Garter
and "Nec aspera terrent" is the motto of the Welfes. So, no surprise there.
I think the blade is older than the etching mainly because of the older
encraving indicating a "F. Duke of Brunswick". I wonder who could be meant by that...
Best Regards,
Thilo
* sorry for the link but i am not allowed to copy the picture to this forum