Interesting,
While notes are not at hand presently, and at the risk of sounding fanciful, it seems this type mark had to do with the so called 'Caissagnard' style blades which were popularly fashioned in Nantes. These typically had motif and devices associated with magic, occult and talismanic symbolism, and this 'arrow' device I believe was among these kinds of symbols.
It seems references by Buigne had similar shown in illustrations but cannot recall offhand.
Hopefully others of course more well versed in these topics will respond with perhaps better answers, but I do recall seeing these same marks as shown, and they had nothing to do with makers marks. It does seem worthy of note that this location on blade spine was typically the location for makers names.
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