Tulwar for comment

Jim McDougall · 10th October 2019, 09:49 PM

Stu, there's the rub!
Markings are a pretty sticky wicket most of the time, especially these kinds of variant groupings which seem to have been used collectively on blades in certain sectors of production and in various times.

While there were certain cases of certain devices and symbolic images which can be attributed to certain makers, the spurious cross use of these and others which may have had other meanings have been used in a quality imbuement sense.

Personally I am inclined to place the markings on your blade in a German context, as the use of gold metal inlay was a very much German proclivity.
Naturally as with anything, there are no hard and fast rules, but it is just my own sense of the case of such use.

The gold metal fill in the marks were probably spuriously applied as interpretations of Italian markings seen and in the kind of astral grouping used often on European blades.

I wish there was a way to align particular blades to certain makers with European instances, but aside from the registered or documented ones, these kinds of generalized devices were usually used broadly by many providers.

10th October 2019, 09:49 PM	#23
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Stu, there's the rub! Markings are a pretty sticky wicket most of the time, especially these kinds of variant groupings which seem to have been used collectively on blades in certain sectors of production and in various times. While there were certain cases of certain devices and symbolic images which can be attributed to certain makers, the spurious cross use of these and others which may have had other meanings have been used in a quality imbuement sense. Personally I am inclined to place the markings on your blade in a German context, as the use of gold metal inlay was a very much German proclivity. Naturally as with anything, there are no hard and fast rules, but it is just my own sense of the case of such use. The gold metal fill in the marks were probably spuriously applied as interpretations of Italian markings seen and in the kind of astral grouping used often on European blades. I wish there was a way to align particular blades to certain makers with European instances, but aside from the registered or documented ones, these kinds of generalized devices were usually used broadly by many providers.