Jens, thank you very much !
Matt, its good to see your most interesting post on these marks. As you can see there is a great deal of confusion with the markings on arms in India, first because the East India Co. had its own army independent of the government initially. Prior to the dissolution of the EIC after the Indian Mutiny (1857) there was already a great deal of transition going on.
The quartered or flaunched heart balemarks with VEIC initials were replaced by a rampant lion around 1810.
In the Khyber regions however, the spurious marking of arms with these heart balemarks continued through the rest of the 19th c
With these particular marks in linear row of five, they appear to be native applied copies probably of North Italian marks often termed 'twig' marks associated with a number of makers there. It is presumed that these kinds of groupings of spurious European markings are generally used to suggest the blades are European and therefore of superior quality . These twig marks are often seen on earlier Italian blades which often were used in the khandas (called 'firangi' when so mounted) . In many cases they occur in groupings of three or more, sometimes even several lines of them.
There have long been myths about tallying kills on blades etc but these tales are as far as I have ever found, complete folklore. Actually the only instances I have ever found for such 'scores' are in aviation with the familiar kills on the fuselage of the aircraft. Even the tall tales of the wild west where gunfighters are said to have notched their guns are fabricated. None of the celebrated gunfighters weapons have ever had a single notch in them. It is believed that the myth began with Bat Masterson 'creating' souvenier Colts with notches in the grip .
Returning to EIC, and the triangle stamps etc. I believe these were left mostly inconclusive in the discussion a few years ago, however I believe they were EIG for East India Government probably much later in the Raj. There was no East India Co. after 1858, and though most arms and materials went to India through ISD (India Stores Depot) we know huge volume of materials did not.
It seems quite likely that these often poorly applied stamps with EIG may have been legitimately applied in various supply depots, but as noted that remains unclear.
All best regards,
Jim
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