A Large Spanish Cup Hilt

[fernando]

Originally Posted by ulfberth

... With all the info we have seen so far, would you say this is most probably a Toledo cup hilt rapier or are the chances of it being Italian just as plausible ?

I do not have the capacity to judge that, once the elementary leads are missing. In a wide interpretation, the design of the fixation claws might just be a decoration ability and not a deliberate shell symbol.
It appears (to me) that Italians had a more extensive work on such elaborated cup bowls but, on the contrary, the various swords of this type in the Wallace Colection are mostly Spanish, namely from Toledo, sometimes with Solingen blades.
On the other hand, considering that this example is Spanish due to its well spelt blade inscription, you face a contradiction as, Spanish smiths who made such fine swords, had a name and or a mark to engrave on the blade, either in the forte or in the ricasso.
So ...

[ulfberth]

so ... perhaps its Italian, there are several rapiers in the Poldo Pezolli museum that have no makers mark on the ricasso either including the one with the scallop shells decoration, however I would not rule out Spanish either....