Kaskara

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

I am not owner of the sword on the picture below (and I don´t have more pictures). It is Ethiopian seif... Is the stamp original Kull?

Hi Martin, as Jim has stated this does not appear to be a Kull blade, but to my eyes does look to be a European stamp, especially considering the volume of blades Ethiopia imported from European suppliers. This could be from any number of the workshops operating around Solingen in the 19th century.

[Martin Lubojacky]

Thank you Jim and Iain, I saw the sword - it was definitely rehilted. The blade is of high quality - still absolutely straight, strong, flexible. The stamp seems to be too much detailed/realistic - to be of local production.

[Martin Lubojacky]

Maybe Agip-Eni ?

[roanoa]

Martin, I like your sense of humor.... I doubt, though, that too many people would even know about the AGIP lion, which, of course, has SIX legs....

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by roanoa

Martin, I like your sense of humor.... I doubt, though, that too many people would even know about the AGIP lion, which, of course, has SIX legs....

Good one guys! It seems I learn something (a lot of things) new every day around here! I had never heard of this 6 legged lion.....what is that about?

Iain, very much agree, this definitely seems to be a European stamp but I cannot place it among varied Solingen marks. Perhaps it is among the many which become prevalent among knife makers etc later in the 19th c.

I have always wondered, and possibly you might have encountered or considered, that importers in entrepots in Africa might have had stamps as used in Europe.
We always look to the quality of such marks on blades hoping to determine if European or native, but some recurring marks seem of European quality while oriented atypically on blades.

[Edster]

Agip/ENI Logo. It's actually a dog according to company site.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Edster

Agip/ENI Logo. It's actually a dog according to company site.

Thanks Ed. I think when we get into stylized animals in symbolic devices etc. it gets pretty hard to determine just what they actually are intended to represent. This looks like it has a mane.

I recall studying the mark of Toledo swordsmith Julian Del Rey from 17th c. which to me looked like a rampant lion. In colloquial terms (I think beginning from a reference in Cervantes) it began to be called the 'perillo' (=little dog).Possibly an allusion to the famed 'running wolf' of Passau on German blades.


I guess as per Rorschach its whatever each person perceives


Still dont get the six legs.