Two north african knives

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Emanuel

Hello,

The top one is a knife from Bou-Saada yes, but I don't recognize the second one.

Looking at older Bou-Saada knives I have the feeling they are derived from the Corsican and Genovese style of knives often called "vendetta knives". Almost identical shape and construction in some cases. I can see "Genwi" knives making it so far south since it was a stop over on the caravan routes, 250km just south of the major ports on the Mediterranean.

Just one comment here, I think it's difficult to say one is directly derived from the other. However I think it is pretty clear both come from a similar family of knives found around this area of the Mediterranean, likely established for a very long time.

The question of "which came first" is always I think a difficult one in these cases and there's a tendency to sometimes attribute ethnographic items as later, simply because they've remained in production longer.