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Originally Posted by midelburgo
I understand that Julian del Rey was a Granada Muslim up to 1478, making swords there, then became a Christian, changed name, and made blades in Toledo and Zaragoza afterward. Two of the jinetas have its perrillo (little dog) mark, those at Paris and another that used to be at the Royal Armoury in Turin (at least until 1840). It is possible that these blades were made in Toledo and mounted in Granada before the war started in 1482. Maybe it is hard to believe Muslims would have allowed an animal representation on their swords, but there you have the lions fountain at Alhambra.
The "perrillo" swords are a common find in Spanish XVIth century literature, now there are difficulties in making clear, which ones were made by Julian del Rey, its successors and which are imports from Passau.
Another of the jineta blades is marked with a roman alphabet S, what seems unlikely if made in an Islamic country.
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There have been many great discussions here on the topic of Spanish marking over the years, and I know personally I have learned more than I can say from them. With that I would recommend readers use the search function here and simply use 'perillo' for example, to access these.
To summarize, Julian Del Rey was indeed a Granada swordsmith working for the Nasrid ruler Boabdil, and indeed after the conquest in 1492 went to work for Ferdinand and converted to Catholicism. As with most markings, their use and attribution is often unclear, but the 'perrillo' is claimed to have been used by him.
However, his father was a smith, as was his son, and there appear to be disagreements as to the use of their mark used in common.......the mark was NOT the so called perillo, bit a cross in latten (copper) . The perillo seems to have been applied as with most Spanish marks in tandem with other marks. It is actually not even clear that this represents a dog, and it is ofte believed to have taken that connotation from Cervantes tongue in cheek reference to the mark as on Spanish 'little dog swords'. It is remembered that "Don Quixote" was a brilliant satire on chivalry with much focus of course on Spain.
The stylized creature in rampant posture represented as the 'perillo' seems to have been a mark used along with others and which may have had numerous inside meanings. This is much like the curious but well known man in the moon' mark which was often thought to be that of the 'espaderos del rey' but we now know it was also an supplemental mark.
Therefore the notion of the Spanish mark being exclusively that of Julian Del Rey and the circumstances of his conversion to Catholicism suggesting a derisive statement noting sincerity in symbolic gesture using a 'dog' is 'interesting' but more 'lore' than reality. In the times I do not think anyone even thought of the mark as a dog, and may have been regarded as a heraldic lion in its rampant stance (contrary to running as in the 'Passau' wolf).
Apparently most of the blades of later in particular which have only the 'dog' are thiught to be spurious and on German blades. It should be noted that most of the 'running wolf' marks applied were on Solingen blades, and were often placed on blades destined for mounting in Passau as a kind of 'brand'. The possible connection between the 'dog' of Spain and 'wolf' of Germany is intriguing but largely unresolved.