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Nice Claymore here with what I believe is a 17th Century German blade or earlier. I have seen this running fox maker mark before. But I don�t recall who the maker is.

The UK has the running fox marks which are derived from the German wolf marks, maybe a Shotley Bridge mark or Samuel Harvey mark? I don't see an H or SH in the body so I don't know really. Germany has the running wolf marks from Solingen and Passau. Any other marks? Sorry I can't help further but hopefully someone with expertise can. Thanks.

The Shotley group left Solingen in the 1680's and were making blade's at Shotley Bridge by about 1690. They seem to have carried on the wolf / fox mark.
I have seen the Harvey mark with they SH clearly in the fox body. The fox marking was done with several styles, which at some point may be the clue to the date and location. So far everything points to the Solingen makers either in Germany or the family that moved to Shotley Bridge.
Anyhow thanks for refreshing my memory.

Dow, It's a very nice sword . But it's been a while since I've spent much time with the older types of swords. So it's something that needs some quality time looking into, with my faint recollections favoring Germany. Best Regards to you and Mikee, Fred

Regarding the Shotley Bridge Sword Co., this is quite a complex topic, and actually begins early in the 17th century with German sword cutlers who had come to Hounslow Heath mostly from Solingen. Some cutlers from Birmingham are known to have joined them there, but by about 1660s most of the Solingen makers had returned to Solingen. It seems only a few examples are known marked with Hounslow lettered in the inscriptions, and there are a number of examples of swords marked with the 'Passau wolf' but no other markings associated. The famed maker Peter Munsten as well as Johannes Kindt (later John Kennett) of course marked and inscribed blades accordingly. Munsten is better known for his cabalistic images on blades, but by 1660s returned to Solingen (according to Aylward, 1945).

By around 1687 Hermann Mohll and some of the descendants of the Hounslow workers, along with newly immigrated Solingen makers formed a sword making center at Shotley Bridge in County Durham on the Derwent River. By 1690 blades from Shotley Bridge were being sold at a warehouse in London, but the enterprise was temporarily ceased when Hermann Mohll got in trouble with importing German blades ironically, and closing down sometime on or before 1703. Mohll reopened in 1716 (as Hermann Mohll & Son) and the business moved to Birmingham around 1832 from Shotley Bridge (the forerunner of Robert Mole, the famed maker who later was acquired by Wilkinson).

There is some evidence or suggestion of crossed swords being used by the firm but I have seen no evidence of examples of blades with such mark.
There are walloon hilt swords with blades marked in the fullers SHOTLEY BRIDGE from the time of the Monmouth Rebellion and Marlborough Campaigns but no specific symbolic markings I am aware of.

And I hope the data I have compiled is of some use explaining more of what these blades may have had on them. There is considerable material on these German swordsmiths in England in both Hounslow and Shotley Bridge, along with the somewhat irrelevant mystery of the Hollow Sword Co. which seems to have been more a real estate venture than sword enterprise.

The 'running wolf' of Passau, which evolved into forms stamped in the blades of Styria, Solingen and eventually in the Hounslow blades and Shotley Bridge blades of German makers in England.