Odd folder

[Chris Evans]

Richard,

You have a beauty with that knife! Its overall shape screams Spanish but the detail work does not. Could be the work of an expatriate Spanish cutler who, like many, went to France and Italy due to the harassment by authorities of those who pursued this trade.

As an aside, small stubby Spanish navajas of this shape nowadays are known as `navaja capadora'

As pointed out by Ibrahiim, the detail work has a strong resemblance to those Italian specimens he posted. As well, the lock is atypical for Spain.

It could have been made possibly in Italy, France, or elsewhere, but in the Spanish style. I have a 20th century navaja that looks very Spanish, but is more ornate and unusually well made and which was manufactured in France.

I had a quick look in Forton's book to see if I could identify the maker's logo/brand but no luck. Will have another look in my others books later on in the day.

Cheers
Chris

[Chris Evans]

Richard,

I think that your navaja could be French. The attached book cover is illustrated with one similar to yours and the author attributes it to 19th century France.

Unfortunately, I had no luck with the maker's logo.

Cheers
Chris

[Gonzalo G]

"Navaja capadora" originally meant an instrument used by the sheperds to cut the testicles of the male livestock, though of course it also had other uses. Which could have derived to the other meaning: to castrate a man in the defense of the honour by a woman. To this day, small knives are used to castrate the livestock.
Regards

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Chris Evans

Richard,

You have a beauty with that knife! Its overall shape screams Spanish but the detail work does not. Could be the work of an expatriate Spanish cutler who, like many, went to France and Italy due to the harassment by authorities of those who pursued this trade.

As an aside, small stubby Spanish navajas of this shape nowadays are known as `navaja capadora'

As pointed out by Ibrahiim, the detail work has a strong resemblance to those Italian specimens he posted. As well, the lock is atypical for Spain.

It could have been made possibly in Italy, France, or elsewhere, but in the Spanish style.



Cheers
Chris

Great that you point this out! It fits in with the history of the lower half of Italy plus Sicily, (everything south of Naples), which was actually ruled by the Spanish Crown for centuries, until the unification of the peninsula in the 19th cent.

It is for this reason that cutlers and gunsmiths working in southern Italy developed a regional style that was heavily Spanish-influenced in terms of functional form and of aesthetics, and very distinct from those of the regions further north. Yet it was not slavish imitation; in detail the local imagination is apparent. These knives are attractive and of considerable interest not only to knife collectors but to those interested in the ethnography and craft traditions of Mediterranean Europe. Though weapons from this region do not have the collector cachet of those made further north, quality could be quite high, as exemplified by the sporting arms made at the Fabbrica Reale di Napoli.

These folding knives can be looked at in the same light as cup-hilt rapiers, whose popularity in Italy lay only among the Hispanicized elite, as opposed to their universal appeal on the Iberian Peninsula (and in variant form, in Spanish territories in the Americas).