The 'fly' markings

[Jim McDougall]

A short time ago Stephen posted a marking query from one of his kaskaras, and while this was of course on the ethnographic forum, it seems that this blade is likely a quite old European blade. It is about 32" long and seems to have been with the sword for some time, certainly well into the 19th century.

The marking on the blade is that which is identified with variations of these twig type markings on earlier Italian blades, but seems more commonly found on German made blades of from late 16th century into the 17th (Wallace collection A483, A576, A604).

I have seen these markings assigned to N. Italy and seem to correspond to some type of guild stamp, but apparantly German trade blade producers began adding them on blades along with other such familiar marks such as the running wolf. These curiously figured stamps apparantly are referred to in some Italian references as ' marca a mosca' or the mark of the fly.

It appears that the thread on early makers trademarks has been very successful as a resource, now well over 13,000 views, but is so large in size the last post was mine over a year ago, so I thought I would place this separately.

I'd like to see other examples of this curious stamp on blades, and of course any thoughts on its history, and variants. I have seen these termed 'twig' marks as well (Wallace Collection), and that they originate from Italy seems well set....they occur on schiavona and rapier blades, even armour I believe.