Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Jim McDougall · Today, 04:24 PM

Keith, brilliant entry of THE BOOK!!! on Shotley in concurrent post, and thank you for generously sharing the tenacious and relentless research you have done. While these topics are of course most esoteric, and typically not much noted in much of the 'collecting' world...but those who do find these areas intriguing I can assure you, are most grateful.......count me #1.

Regarding Cologne (Koln) there are some related cognates and perhaps obliquely related items I have been finding passim.

I found notes that Koelle and Coelle are dialectic forms of Koln (readers fact check please).

In "Lore of Arms" (W.Reid, 1976, p.106) it is noted that Casper Kohl (Col) went to Wira, Sweden in 1635 and founded manufactory where other Solingen families joined...there were also factories in Kvarnbacken (sic) and Gorpstrummen.

With the Enrique Col who appears on some Toledo blades, it is noted Col was a Catalan name. I rather question this as the name seems a Spanish version of Henry/Heinrich 'Kohl/Col. ??? one of the number of Solingen smiths who alternatively worked there in the 17th c.

On another note, Eskilstuna, Sweden, known as the city of steel, often stamped blades (it seems 18thc into 19th) with the ANCHOR mark. This has appeared on numbers of hangers, dirks and often led to presumptions of naval association.

The 'anchor' device, recalling somewhat the 'cross and orb' was also related to the familiar multi barred devices used on Spanish blades which was in turn picked up by Solingen in their melange of spurious markings and wordings, mostly of Toledo extraction.

Similar devices sometimes seen on English blades of 17th into 18th c. again resemble these, but sometimes have unusual geometric twists. These are mostly esoteric magic and occult sigils which apply to talismanic motif.

So the diffusion of these marking curiosities reveal the kinds of diffusion of blades, and their makers along with the diaspora of Solingen smiths during the Thirty Years war and illustrates the dynamics perhaps regarding the ore situation.

It would seem that these circumstances would likely include Holland, Rotterdam in particular.

Today, 04:24 PM	#21
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,372	Points of interest Keith, brilliant entry of THE BOOK!!! on Shotley in concurrent post, and thank you for generously sharing the tenacious and relentless research you have done. While these topics are of course most esoteric, and typically not much noted in much of the 'collecting' world...but those who do find these areas intriguing I can assure you, are most grateful.......count me #1. Regarding Cologne (Koln) there are some related cognates and perhaps obliquely related items I have been finding passim. I found notes that Koelle and Coelle are dialectic forms of Koln (readers fact check please). In "Lore of Arms" (W.Reid, 1976, p.106) it is noted that Casper Kohl (Col) went to Wira, Sweden in 1635 and founded manufactory where other Solingen families joined...there were also factories in Kvarnbacken (sic) and Gorpstrummen. With the Enrique Col who appears on some Toledo blades, it is noted Col was a Catalan name. I rather question this as the name seems a Spanish version of Henry/Heinrich 'Kohl/Col. ??? one of the number of Solingen smiths who alternatively worked there in the 17th c. On another note, Eskilstuna, Sweden, known as the city of steel, often stamped blades (it seems 18thc into 19th) with the ANCHOR mark. This has appeared on numbers of hangers, dirks and often led to presumptions of naval association. The 'anchor' device, recalling somewhat the 'cross and orb' was also related to the familiar multi barred devices used on Spanish blades which was in turn picked up by Solingen in their melange of spurious markings and wordings, mostly of Toledo extraction. Similar devices sometimes seen on English blades of 17th into 18th c. again resemble these, but sometimes have unusual geometric twists. These are mostly esoteric magic and occult sigils which apply to talismanic motif. So the diffusion of these marking curiosities reveal the kinds of diffusion of blades, and their makers along with the diaspora of Solingen smiths during the Thirty Years war and illustrates the dynamics perhaps regarding the ore situation. It would seem that these circumstances would likely include Holland, Rotterdam in particular.