Outstanding observations and examples!! Thank you Jasper!
Mark, it looks like your sense toward this being Dutch was perfectly placed, and the more I look at that mark, the more I think it is probably a Dutch mark as well. Your tulip idea I think is quite valid, and though hard for these old eyes to make out, it does seem floral so that makes sense.
Jasper, can you help more with this mark? I know that VOC kamer marks were typically the letter of the town over the VOC, but weren't there 'town' marks much like assay marks used in silversmiths guilds etc? In "Catalog of European Court and Hunting Swords" (Bashford Dean, 1928) there are many of these kinds of cartouches and motifs shown in line drawings, but none that correspond directly . They are much the same in being stamped cartouches though.
|