16th century halberd; origin??

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Allow me to show my surprise, Jim.
The differences between the marks of both examples are rather visible. While the one from the link has the unequivocal mark of Pankraz Taller, with its shape of a shield and X cross interior with dots, the mark of the one in discussion has the shape of a square and, instead of dots, has an extra line departing from the X cross center. I guess such details could not be result of bad striking and constitute differences that enable us to establish that the two marks belong to different smiths.
But then, i might be wrong and am ready to stand corrected.


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Not at all Fernando, actually you are entirely correct, the marks while 'similar' are different, however the gestalt and positioning of these marks are compellingly close in these cases.
I was unable to find marks of Taller in any of my resources on markings, and wondered if perhaps being a 'blacksmith' within the auspices of the armoury might have precluded the usual markings protocols associated with guilds etc in the broader scope of production.

Also, I was wondering if these variations in the 'X' inside either square or shield type cartouche might reflect changes or possibly subtle indicators having to do with production record keeping or the like. It seems that often markings of the same 'type' occur in odd or different configurations or combinations, such as seen with 'sickle marks' and others like the familiar 'kings heads'.