Ian, it could be Caslon, but it could also be a lot of other typefaces, but let’s say it is Caslon, and dig something out about this typeface. Until the beginning of the 18th century the English got their types from Holland, either by buying the types directly or by buying the matrixes and cast the types themselves. The first typecasting firm in England was started in 1720 by William Caslon, his typeface was used a lot until the empire typefaces started to take over.
If this is correct we start looking for blades after 1720-30. Unfortunately I only have one book on European military weapons, and that is one on Danish swords, but I guess the types used in Europe at that time were more or less the same. In this book there are two swords with blades like the one you show. The first one is rather early if the typeface is correct, it is a sword for the foot soldiers, model 1710, but the other one sounds more promising, a sword for the cavalry model 1780, so maybe it is from the time 1750-1850, you should start to look for a factory making swords, which used this mark – or maybe the mark was faked, like so many others, but I hope not.
Jens
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