"Nimcha blades" on European swords

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by SidJ

Here is mine with markings with 3 crowns and LONDON stamped under. 4 fullers too with a nice hilt with silver decoration. Any thoughts on this including origin and age?

This is a most unusual blade, and certainly appears German of 18th century, probably latter. The marking is one of the most curious anomalies I have seen and would appear to be a native application imitating it would appear markings perhaps on British gun locks.
The crown of course was placed singly on inspection stamps, never in three, and the placement of this device is in the manner seen on blades of the nimchas in Algerian context. Briggs was in Algeria and this seems like the illustration in his 1965 article as far as position, but more to the forte on the cutting side of blade.

As England did not export blades in these times, the LONDON would be an oddity especially with the crowns. This is mindful of the placement of the bushy tail fox on blades however, but again, no such British mark exists as far as I have known. Fascinating!!!