Some museums, such as the José Hernández in the city of Buenos Aires, occasionally exhibit cutting pieces that belonged to the collection of Carlos G. Daws, which he had formed in his “Gauchesco Family Museum.” In the year 2022, the Las Lilas Museum in San Antonio de Areco delighted us with a superb selection of knives in its showcases, which gave rise to a magnificent catalog. A common thread unites both exhibitions: the vast majority are Creole knives. By criollos we refer to the typical triangular blade, with a firm and strong blade, adapted to the tasks of rural work, embellished in its silverwork for the gaucho's display and, often, for the boss's. There is no doubt that the Creole knife is one of the tools that defines the gaucho along with the horse and the guitar, the octosyllabic verses and the sparse oratory of the country man.
However, there are some Buenos Aires collections that proudly display these objects from other times and origins - for example, since the beginning of the last century, Jorge Llobet Cullen's collection brought together an incredible set (READ MORE)
Retracing those distant routes is the reason for this delivery.
Some of the knives studied, it is easy to understand, have been acquired from highly recognized experts, including authors of international reference books. But one does not always find the piece that is completely exempt from doubts regarding its authenticity, as happens with Creole knives. “Uncle stories” exist in all areas. As experts say, the most important thing to certify an antique is its “provenance” or origin, and study it as you build your collection. Go to books - printed and digital versions -, talk with colleagues and other specialists, and visit museums and other private collections. It is not only about searching for the pieces but also about revealing their stories.
The photographed scroll knife is an extraordinary case. Although at the time, Simon Moore - the great specialist - commented that it had been manufactured in the European Iron Age, possibly 2,000 years before the present, he warned that it was not possible for him to certify this dating due to the real lack of knowledge of its origin. The truth is that the piece was analyzed in the Department of Archaeometallurgy of the Faculty of Engineering of the UBA, at that time directed by Eng. De Rosa. There they carried out a series of studies and prepared a paper that was presented in various international archaeometallurgy forums. [1] Polishing the knife revealed the remains of a decoration made of pure copper and bronze alloy wires under the rust cover. The pommel scrolls are extremely rare and were identified as Voluytoobraznymi of Slavic origin. As far as we have references, only four similar knives have been found, dating from the 8th to 10th centuries AD, between the Danube and the Carpathians. These are cult objects, possibly related to health care. In our opinion, this is an extraordinary piece, not only because of its rarity and age but also because it has been subjected to the most modern analyzes available. Measures. Blade length: 7.5 cm. Total length: 13.1 cm.
Iron knife with ring. It is a knife from the European Iron Age, that is, around 2000 years old. It was excavated in present-day Germany, possibly in the archaeological area of Hallstatt. Its characteristic is a ring to tie it to the owner's clothes. Let us remember that for hundreds of thousands of years and until a few decades ago, the knife was the most precious of human tools. This specimen has possibly been preserved in river clay, which explains the excellent condition of the iron. Measures. Blade length: 13 cm. Total length: 20.2 cm. In an article also published in Hilario, we mentioned a Spanish knife, possibly from Flanders, from the 17th or 17th century [see more] that was found on the coast of the Río de la Plata in 2022 and that had preserved its blade because it was protected by clay.
Medium, medieval knife with its wooden handle, with breaks. Due to its typology we understand that it was used in the years 1200 to 1300. Measurements. Blade length: 11 cm. Total length: 19 cm. To get an idea of its antiquity, the medieval manuscripts and the extraordinary Bayeux tapestry date from that time. [2] A very similar knife can be seen in the book Cutlery for the table by Simon Moore: p. 65.
Knife derived from a scramasax, the ancient design used by the Anglo-Saxons. The one we show here is a typical inheritance from that one, with a long dropped tip. The piece is similar to that reproduced by Simon Moore in his book Cutlery for the table, p. 69. Note the inevitable ring to hold it and not lose it, considering that it was a precious possession for its owner. Possibly also from the years 1200 to 1300 AD. The blade was separated from the handle and has a small repair. Measures. Blade length: 7.5 cm. Total length: 14.4 cm.
Knife from Flanders, found on the bank of the River Thames. The searchers for historical objects are well known who travel along the coasts of this watercourse during the downpours and often stumble upon pieces that have fallen or been lost during the maneuvers of those ships that have been moored for hundreds of years on its coasts. In addition, the river was used as a garbage dump by the city of London for centuries, so it is possible to find all kinds of objects there. [3]
The knife was found in the old and now abandoned Queenhithe dock, in that city, whose clay coast has protected the blade and the handle, although the edge is quite rough. This is a variant that was in fashion between the mid-15th and 16th centuries. Some Flemish bronze workers (who made the decorative part of the capes, as can be seen in this one) apparently set up a workshop in Billingsgate Market where they did these tasks. The knife is similar to the one that Moore sold to our expert Abel Domenech and that helped him develop his theory about the influence of the Flanders knife on our Creole, which can be read in his book Silver Daggers. Measures. Blade length: 9.3 cm. Total length: 16.5 cm.
Folding fruit knife. We jump forward five hundred years and we find a small folding knife with mother-of-pearl handles and a silver blade that was used (before the invention of stainless steel in 1914) to cut and eat fruits without its acid content staining it, as happened with the carbon steel of ordinary blades. Coming from Maldonado, Uruguay, it is an example of the great import that this country had of English products, even the finest ones. According to the stamps on the blade, the knife was made by Thomas Marples of the city of Birmingham in 1889, a precise reference provided by these marks, which indicate manufacturer, city of origin and year, placed there by royal order, since the state controlled the purity of the metal and collected taxes in parallel. This version is practically unknown in our environment. However, Simon Moore published a research work dedicated exclusively to them under the title Pocket Fruit Knives [2008]. Measures. Blade length: 6.5 cm. Total length: 15.5 cm.
English table knife with Simpson die // 55 Strand. It is an ivory knife with a drawing and engraving of feathers, typical of the first decades of the 19th century. It was manufactured by Henry Simpson with a workshop at 55 Strand Street in London. Measures. Blade length: 16 cm. Total length: 27 cm. A similar knife (and others from the period with fine work on the ivory handle) can be seen in the book British Cutlery: an illustrated history of design, evolution and use -p. 126- edited by Peter Brown. The firm was created in 1788 by an ancestor of Henry. They were also dedicated to producing surgical instruments such as lancets and scarifiers. On the website of the Science Museum in London you can see a terrifying scarifier with 12 lancets that was used to perform bloodletting and cure diseases. [4]
Knife and fork set made by Sanderson in England. There was more than one Sanderson production company, so we can't attribute it to one in particular. This game was made between the years 1760 and 1800, as can be deduced from certain aspects, such as the semi-scimitar-shaped blade, the most used in the 18th century in England. On the other hand, the fork is a utensil of much more recent creation, and it took several years until it became popular. The knife, on the other hand, has an origin that goes back tens of thousands of years and the spoon perhaps up to two thousand years old. [5] The two-prong fork, on the other hand, was incorporated into daily habits from the 1760s onwards and from the beginning of the 1800s it was gradually replaced by the three-pronged one. Similar sets can be seen in British Cutlery: an illustrated history of design, evolution and use, edited by Peter Brown, on pages 110 and 126. A more pronounced scimitar-shaped table knife blade can also be found in Simon Moore's book , Cutlery for the table, p. 211. The scimitar shape was used since the 17th century, as we have shown in a previous article in this newsletter, already cited. Finally, the coined inscription Cast Steel refers to a type of steel used at different times. Measures. Blade length: 12.5 cm. Total length: 21 cm.
Small medieval knife of probable German origin - found on the bank of the Thames -, with its end in the shape of a parallelepiped [corporeal rectangle], apparently made of bovine horn, with a sharp blade, very serrated on the edge. The piece has a European certificate of authenticity, without signature or information of the person who issued it. Will it be authentic? How to know?
The shape corresponds to a copy that illustrates the aforementioned book Cutlery for the table by Moore [p. 66], who dates it to around the year 1400. But we can add something, this specimen has a protuberance at the end of the cape, one of what we call today "coco-breaker", although it is barely 3 mm high. That tip is not seen in the photo mentioned just now, although in the same work on its page. 297 the evolution of the ends of the cape in the Middle Ages is described. There Moore notes that the rectangular ends of the late 15th century had the same protuberance as in the piece we present here. That said, it should be noted that we cannot guarantee its origin, but we have good clues that confirm a medieval origin. Measures. Blade length: 6 cm. Total length: 14.5 cm.
Finally, I share three antique pieces that have the stamps of their manufacturers, acquired at ridiculous prices. The trade still exists and is dedicated to other areas of antiquarianism; It is to be imagined that hypothetical and uncertain references appear in his certificate. Some market agents, when offering seized items, cleverly warn that a certain section of the studied piece is “posterior” - we ourselves have resorted to this concept above -, for them an effective subterfuge that forces us to understand that with the ambiguity of such word they leave open the possibility of having been made just yesterday... The truth is that sometimes, it is not easy to verify how old a piece is. All that remains is to trust the “provenance” and study; which is perhaps the most beautiful thing about collecting.
Notes:
1. Andrés Chesini Remic and Horacio Manuel de Rosa, Morphological and microstructural study of an iron knife, 18* International Congress of Metallurgy and Materials, Bariloche, 2018. (Read report)
2. You can see this extraordinary work in detail here: HERE
3. You can see this documentary HERE and everything that refers to search engines or “mudlarkers”.
4. SEE
5. 2300 Spoons and Utensils 2800 Years, catalog of the Museo Soumaya exhibition, Mexico, 2001.
* Special for Hilario. Arts Letters Trades