Hi All,
I was looking for new additions to my collection today and came across a very nice looking Heer by Holler with a personalised crossguard monogram of the initials E.L. with floral scrolls on a well known UK dealers site but the price seemed a bit too good (for the UK anyway), so I had a look around the net for similar styles of engraving to see if the one I was looking at seemed period style but much to my surprise I found another Holler with the EXACT! same monogram to the crossguard on another well known U.S. dealers site.
The daggers themselves on inspection are obviously different daggers though both of the same maker and type apart from the scabbard bands and ferrules plus the grips are different shades of orange and the MM is further down the blade on the UK one, as the dagger in the U.S. is already sold I thought for a moment maybe it could just be the same one that has found it's way to the UK but as I said they are different.
So my question is were there standard patterns of monograms available during the period which could be why these two daggers have the same personalisation on different daggers ? however this seems unlikely to me as how many Officers would require the same initials and style etc. from the same maker, or could the crossguard from the U.S. dagger have ended up on a different dagger here in the UK and if so why would that happen? interestingly if you look closely at the crossguards they both have the same wear marks though the UK one is cleaner than the U.S. one. which has the dark patina but to me they look like one and the same??? This all seems a bit weird to me and would love to hear others opinions on this. The photos attached are taken from both dealers websites if this is not allowed then please delete but I think this should be looked at as something does not seem right here!
Many thanks, Andy.
First 2 x photo's are the already sold (patina) U.S. example and the second two photos are the for sale (clean) UK example:

39296m.jpg (52.37 KB, 278 downloads)
39296l.jpg (29.67 KB, 280 downloads)
34465a.jpg (39.67 KB, 279 downloads)
39296l.jpg (29.67 KB, 276 downloads)