Thank you so much Ed, excellent insight of course, and thank you for adding a list of resources. I cannot find my Pallme at the moment, and was relying on my scribbled notes!
It is interesting that Austria was listed as the source for these rampant lion and cross and orb blades I think the source I had which I was thinking of, but have yet to find, is the Slatin book. As he was of the Austrian contingent and in fact in official capacity in Darfur, I think the assumption was these were Austrian blades. The mention of the Mahdi's personal sword having a blade with the Holy Roman double head eagle and Vivat Carolus much added to such presumption.
It seems that while there a good number of cross and orb, rampant lion and typically stamped fly marks which are Kull blades, I have yet to see one with the deaths head. The absence of the fly stamp adds to the presumption that these copper filled lion/cross +orb blades must have been prepared at some entrepot after arrival from European trade sources. The blades without the fly or makers stamp were likely 'blanks' which may have been produced by auxiliary shops in Solingen to augment the orders of blades for export.
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