Italian? Rapier

[Foxbat]

I will try, but they are hard to see.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

I will try, but they are hard to see.

Even being hard to see, faded inscription style and font used may provide a clue .

[mariusgmioc]

A rapier wit a strikingly similar blade was sold in an auction as being German.

[Foxbat]

It was hard to photograph, but here are some pictures. There's double-oval structure at the beginning, followed by many dots and some odd looking symbols, that could be characters, then another such structure, terminated by the anchor-like symbol comprised of dots.

[Victrix]

I have a Spanish sword with a blade not too dissimilar to those. Could be a generic style? I would struggle to classify the German sword above as a rapier. Also the blades were typically made in a fairly small number of centres and sold all over to cutlers who fitted hilts to the blades according to their customers’ preferences. There were guilds which separated the trades of the bladesmiths and the cutlers.

http://www.thearma.org/essays/How_We...m#.WixOy6ZwGhA

I found this site which is interesting.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

A rapier wit a strikingly similar blade was sold in an auction as being German.

That is not an uncommon blade structure, I in fact own several of them, for instance this one. Here it also contains the wolf-like symbol (although some people suggested it might be a cow... ), possibly confirming the German origin, however, I belong to the school that considers the hilt the primary part of a rapier.

Victrix is, of course, correct, as we know, rapiers were assembled from components, made by more than one master. That usually involved the blade, the hilt and very commonly the grip - each requiring very different set of skills.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

... I belong to the school that considers the hilt the primary part of a rapier...

Could it be bacause hilts have in their 'favour' one attribute, which is the esthetical component ? However is the blade, the part that swordsmen primarily depend upon. Is it wrong to say that blade smiths names (and marks) were more in the limelight ?

Originally Posted by Foxbat

...Victrix is, of course, correct, as we know, rapiers were assembled from components, made by more than one master...

Not only rapiers, but also

[mariusgmioc]

Thank you for posting more photos... but... maybe you can post better ones?!

I know how difficult it is to take good relevant photos without professional equipment, but with some good daylight light and the right angle maybe it is possible.

Regards,

Marius

[Foxbat]

I used to have a pretty good photo setup, but now have to rely more on the phone. I will try later, but the blade has very strong dark patina, so don't know how much better I can do it.