Hi Jim,
Actually I had overlooked the device also at first, but it was noticed by my friend Gav, as we were discussing your sword. In subsequent research, and as noted in my last post (#12, 9Oct) this quatrefoil rosette was also known in Holland as the 'kleeblatt', and was at various times used as a makers mark in Solingen as well as a motif in inscriptions and invocations. In Holland, it may have been a kind of acceptance mark or as before, an emphatic device used along with invocations, inscriptions or perhaps with key dates, as I have been trying to determine with these VOC examples.
Thank you for the response Jim, and I hope you do continue the appreciation of these historic weapons, as I know I have for many years. They always have stories to tell!!
All the best,
Jim
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