Help with ID on a Solingen 'Tree' mark

[Radboud]

Originally Posted by werecow

* Drool *

The engraving on the rear of the guard is a green man I assume, but what is engraved on the sides? It almost looks like a flower wearing a wig.

It's another head, just the face is a bit worn. These faces are a prominent feature of these hilts and where the name 'Mortuary' sword comes from. Late Victorian collectors theorised that the face was the martyred King Charles II.

But as swords with these decorations were carried by both sides of the English Civil War, and there exist examples that can be dated to before the death of Charles II, this is an unlikely explanation. Possibly another one of those mysteries that can only be resolved with a time machine