Exellent Mark!!! and very much agreed , we may be looking at the same shop and period or quite close, and at this early date most likely Passau, which was easily in range of Italy. In all the years of study this in the first evidence I have seen of any consistency or continuity in these typically disparate figures.
It has generally been held that these were almost randomly chiseled into blades by various individuals in shops with varying skill or artistic acumen thus resulting in an almost impressionist style. In many cases these are almost indiscernible, and were thought of as almost a temporally viewed imbuement of meaning unclear in later times.
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