Just discovered that the numbers in cartouche are probably item numbers in contract lot. Apparantly Luckhaus & Gunther numbered thier blades at the forte around 1895-1900 though not in cartouche. I found notes with a pair of Cuban machete type blades with two close numbers, otherwise identical, suggesting being of the same lot. As Solingen was producing blades for a variety of markets in these times, perhaps this suggests this practice was being used by the firms in fulfilling blade contracts. As previously noted blades of these types were being supplied to Abyssinia at this time for straight blade shotels, and these often ended up rerouted in trade entrepots, so being on a kaskara quite expectable, especially since Eritrea and Ethiopia also used them.
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