An excellent write-up as always.
You mentioned that these early Nikkors have a lacquered finish. I once had a beautiful early Nikkor-P 10.5cm 1:2.5 lens, it was not tick-mark but it did have 9 blades (I foolishly sold it before I realized how rare it was). The curious thing was that the chrome surfaces were clearly lacquered, the finish was very smooth and shiny. It looked very luxurious.
I now have two tick-mark lenses and several other non-tick-mark lenses of similar vintage, and
none have the same lacquered finish. The chrome surfaces (actually bare aluminium) are more polished than later lenses which have a matte finish, but nothing like the 10.5cm lens I had. I now think the true lacquer finish may have been a short trial, but most have a bare metal finish.
Another thing - when you disassemble lenses you often have to make little marks so you know how to align things when you put them back together. How did the factory workers know how to assemble the lenses in the first place without those marks?