Sword marking for ID

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Victrix

Yes interesting sword. The National Museum of Hungary has a large number of swords with similar pommels. I understand that these swords were mostly ordered and imported to Hungarian lands (much larger area in those days) from N.Italy and S.Germany and Austria. Sometimes the swords are called Schiavonesca (suggesting Slavic use) although these tend to have S shaped quillons. As Jim mentions there were lots of mercenaries active in the region in those days.

I note that the mark is in relief with sunk background which must be unusual except for Spanish sword marks? I normally see this mostly on halberds.

Thank you Victrix. It seems that Ostrowski in his 1979 treatise "Origins of the Polish Saber", noted regarding Hungarian swords, that there was no apparent sword making industry there, and that their swords came from the locations you indicated. As these style hilts diffused into Italian regions, they developed in certain cases into the well known 'schiavona' typically associated with Venice, and the Dalmatian forces who served there in the Court of the Doge.

As you mention, that sunken cartouche punzone style does recall the Spanish method, and it seems those influences well diffused into provincial regions of that empire. With weaponry of these times, it does seem that these kinds of stamps would be placed on the various forms provided by suppliers in centers frequented by mercenary forces so marks on polearms perhaps might have been applied to swords brought into these centers.

It would seem that expanding the search for comparisons to this mark into the broader scope of arms, including guns, may give us more options.

[Victrix]

Although I could not find an identical mark in Staffan Kinman’s excellent European Makers of Edged Weapons, Their Marks (2015) I found examples of the sunken cartouche punzone marks as Jim calls it. There are other similar marks in the book from Munich and Passau.