The half moon symbol in early Spanish swords

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Is that so, Jim ... in what page ?

Well Fernando, I guess that comment was not entirely correct, as I was so preoccupied with congratulating your well placed and reasonably deduced 'approach' on the embellished 'Z' that I inadvertently linked Sir James Mann's mention of the 'figure' (not 'number') 3 and the letter 'Z'.
As always, I am so grateful for your gentle and courteous edification and catching my misteakes and reinforcing the integrity of the entries by doing so.

Actually, I had not added the page number as I was not quoting and thought I had added that page in earlier comments. In reviewing the pages from Sir James Mann ("Wallace Collection: European Arms & Armour" Vol. II, pp.281, referring to a rapier (A549) and the mark in discussion , "....the mark bears no resemblance to that ( the LETTER Z CROWNED of that of A611) generally attributed to Sebastian Hernandez the elder, who was still living in 1637".

Moving to A611 (Mann, op cit. p.309), Mann describes a rapier of c. 1580-1600, he notes, "....the ricasso stamped on one side with the FIGURE THREE crowned and surmounted by a cross".

Clearly even Sir James Mann, an arms researcher of most distinguished repute, had made misteakes.

Thank you for pointing out my error, and the opportunity to look further into the references from Sir James Mann which were importantly contradictory.