[Jim McDougall]

Extremely well placed notes Carl, and I am inclined to share your opinions on the nature of the refurbished mounts, which as noted in the auction description are of the Victorian period. It is fairly a matter of preference to individual collectors on how much they are willing to accept as far as items that are composite in order to acquire certain authentic components, in most cases of course the blades in swords.

While the hilt does appear to emulate the earlier styles in degree, these Victorian items were clearly made for impressive display rather than functionality. It seems to me that it has been noted that in the industry of reproducing medieval arms and armour in these times, there were instances of authentic early components being put with these then newly fashioned ones in such cases. One of the most renowned producers of these was the atelier of Ernst Schmitt in Munich, and I believe that there were a number of his weapons among the holdings in the Higgins Museum. It would seem however that this apparantly amateur peening would steer away from the work of this particular maker. Regardless, it seems that the weapon was apparantly among venerable company in the Higgins Museum prior to its deaccess in 1951, and has its own established provence distinguished by having been in an esteemed collection.

In any case, the blade on this one was to me of great interest, as I noted in my earlier post, and carries some intriguing markings that may potentially have some much deeper historic connections, as also noted. I believe these were the source of the interest shown by Michael and his friend, and extremely unfortunate that this situation developed with the auction.

Michael, thank you so much for posting the excellent illustration of the early Augsburg marking! With this I can see exactly what you mean in the comparison. I have been trying to discover whether the letter 'A' as seen in these examples in majascule script, and in this curious style with the flattened v shape crossbar and the elongated serif at the top , can be found in other paleographic examples of medieval Germany. It does not of course correspond to the various examples of Fraktur or other 'Gothic' script, and I am wondering if it might be something found in religious psalters or Gospels of the time.

According to Stockel (ref: "One Hundred Great Guns" , Merrill Lindsay, 1967, p.220), "...Augsburg control marks are the earliest known marks used on guns" with a bronze gun c.1480, noting there are marks found on crossbows as well. Also, that "...Augsburg had for a long time been a center for the manufacture of armour and had used identifying marks".

Since from early times such majuscule scripts were used in scriptoriums centuries earlier, and it is well known that Bishops and Abbots were often in effect controllers of weaponry and ordnance materials, might it be presumed that such style lettering would be adopted in marking weapons even in these later times? It sounds like if this is the case with the old Augsburg proof mark, then your suggestion is right on target.

It would be great if we could find this letter in this configuration among letters in these medieval scripts to corroborate, or perhaps the letter became stylized independantly to become the specific marking rather than a copy of the actual type letter itself.

Also, I wonder of the mark can be found on armour and crossbows as well?

All the best,
Jim