Rick! I burst out laughing on that one!!!!!LOL JUDL!!!
I've been plowing through stuff for hours and once as I gasped, the forbidden thread came up on the google search I had on.
I think that will be forever the thread of all time.
As I regain my composure, I will share with Amuk what I have found
Apparantly little detailed information exists on arms and armor production in the Netherlands, but centers existed in Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent and Tournai in Flanders. It seems that they did import large portion of arms and armor from Italy and Germany.
ref: "Famous Makers and European Centers of Arms and Armor Production", Dirk H. Breiding, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Timeline of Art History" 2000.
There would have been considerable examples of Spanish and Italian rapier forms c.1600, and for more military use, these were primarily the German imports. These would have been heavy bladed 'Sinclair sabre' types of sabres with shellguards and varying forms of developing basket style hilts, some with heavy straight blades.
In "Blanke Wapens:Nederlandse slag-en steekwapens sinds 1600" J.P.Puype, 1981, some of these are discussed, however since my Dutch is 'nada'
I cant relay much.
As far as the VOC, the firm was officially formed in 1602, the blades on the swords would not have of course had any particular regulation as far as I would imagine. The officers of course would have worn most likely rapiers as noted of Italian or Spanish form, while other ranks or individuals would have used the military swords of the time. I have not yet found at what point the VOC markings might have begun to appear on blades, but I would not expect them to appear as property type stamps until much later, and even then, not on the officers weapons.
FYI....the in house LOL at the beginning here concerns a thread about a VOC sword that just about drove us all nuts over a period of several years! It was the thread that would not die! ....Shaver Kool!!
Sorry Rick! I just had to 'splain it'.
All the best,
Jim