While I have seldom entered this particular field of collecting, I have occasionally had the opportunity to see phenomenal examples of these kinds of weapons through Gav, who has always helpfully shared many of these 'finds' with me. Naturally with my obsession with markings on blades of all kinds, this one is intriguing as it seems odd to see a Chinese 'chop' mark on a blade from Islamic areas of the S. Philippines.
Although I no longer am a collector of weapons, I am very much of information and learning.Thanks to the tenacious and discerning skills of Gav in finding unusual, and as seen here, fantastically beautiful, weapons I have indeed learned a lot!
Congratulations Charles! and thank you for presenting this incredible weapon with such great detail.
I hope we will get more on the chop mark. It seems these of course were placed on all manner of things, money, documents etc. as an easily recognized indicator of official status. On arms it seems to have been used primarily as a 'quality' symbol, much the same as with makers and guild marks on European and other blades, so I doubt it could be classified as 'fraudulent' despite probably being spurious .
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