Ulfberth, that is an absolutely perfect catch!!! Excellent example, and I agree this assembly may well have had working life originality. The pommel in Jean Lucs example is cruder and the sides are curved in from the top, and these quillons are crudely worked....however the sword itself has a certain mystique.
I am thinking that broadaxe is onto something with the colonial suggestion.
With the example Ulfberth shows, the swept upward quillons, the type of pommel and essentially the gestalt of the hilt suggest compelling likeness.
The example he shows, has an arming type blade with SAHAGUM, the name commonly use in Solingen for blades for the Low Countries.
The quillon terminals remind me of Spanish rapier types, and clearly this example of Jean Luc is a rapier blade, Its condition renders the markings pretty much indiscernible. I agree with Philip's idea of the blade point being reground possibly from damage.
It would seem to me that this may have been a sword following a type of hilt known and in some favor in Low Countries, probably Holland. Perhaps this was in a colonial setting where such fabrication might have been performed by a blacksmith using an older rapier blade, and following this apparently somewhat distinct hilt form. The Spanish influences, and possibly blades together with Dutch forms might offer plausible solution.
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