Typed this up in the train today but hadn't seen Chris' last post (excellent points to be sure!), still I'll post these few musings...
This is developing into a fascinating discussion! Not just about these two swords but as always, back to the all pervasive questions of trade, regional politics, steel and marks.
To focus for a minute on the two sword that are the subject of this thread, in my opinion the well aged blade is likely 19th and here is why:
a. The tang is formed particularly well
b. It has likely been rehilted and has thus done some time in the field (note Chris' excellent observation about the unused tang hole)
c. The patina (dark patina) is consistent with some age.
d. The form and execution of the fuller is smoother and has much smoother edges than the croc sword.
Is it a European blade? I am not sure. I agree ricassos are a pretty surefire way to identify the trade blades, but does it rule out anything without a ricasso? Again, I am simply not sure. As usual we have a small body of evidence and incomplete records to go on. This particular blade strikes me as something of above average quality. Granted I am only going on photos, but sometimes I just have a feeling. I have seen a few other (notably Kull) blades that don't have a ricasso block... So I'm just not sure.
Touching briefly on the mark, first, thanks to Jim for nudging my memory with the scan from Briggs! Seen in this context the origin from the "fly" and the two marks labeled as figure B I think there is something of a rude progression there. Regarding the age and ethnic attribution of the mark... I am always hesitant of taking some pretty sparse data (a few captured takouba in the early 1900s) and trying to read a lot into it, much as I liked to just for the sake of some structure! I am then leary of IDing this as a firstly Tuareg mark that transmitted to Darfur. Maybe it was, or maybe it went the other way. This is the maddening thing about marks, applied locally they give almost no trail based on blades or mounts to say who first started using them first. For example looking through Morel's essay did not turn up the mark and he was fairly comprehensive in his studies and examined quite a few examples. That leads me to think this mark was perhaps not particulary common on takouba, but we do see it popping up a lot on kaskara! The short version is I don't know but I'm getting really, really curious.
