Hello Jim,old friend,and thanks for responding. I also suspected that my dating to the earlier period might be incorrect, but it is hard to tell with this pattern, as the changes over time were subtle. For instance, many of the earlier mortuary hilts and early Walloons had screws in the pommel securing the knuckle bow and many experts point out that later swords got rid of the screw and just had the bow poking through a hole in the pommel. Neumann shows the transition in several of his listed swords. Leslie Southwick, however, did show several early transitional swords without the pommel screw, just the knuckle bow directly piercing the pommel on weapons dating to the 1660's, 70's, 80's. Likewise, I saw a very similar pommel shape to mine on a piece dated ca. 1690. In truth I was hoping for the earlier date, as it fit into the Brethren of the Coast period-
, but the facts don't lie.(unless Jasper comes in with a different opinion!)
In any case, a time period of 1700-30 still leaves it within the boundaries of the Pirate Golden Age. As you pointed out, the German sword makers were in high demand and their product swept all across Europe. The fact that the general pattern of this sword made it popular in the Low Countries is fine by me. The Dutch, Danes and Swedes were all in the Caribbean by this time (Sweden had their own pirate/privateer flotilla guarding their coast from invasion).Likewise, if we are to attribute this sword to a French association, the French were likewise heavily involved in piracy in the West Indies and other regions at this time frame.