| Chris Evans |
14th October 2019 01:06 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by fernando
Or like those pre-engraved with decor motifs destined to sell as Sevilla recuerdos ...
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Not to mention the huge number of 20th century souvenir navajas made in Albacete and Santa Cruz De Mudela bearing the ubiquitous inscription of "TOLEDO"
Quote:
Or publish a work where such errors are eradicated; and let the readers/collectors themselves define which one is best for carta higienica ;).
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I doubt if there would be enough verifiable errors to warrant a parallel publication; This is probably why there are so few published works on the subject. And we must bear in mind that the book being discussed would have been extremely expensive to produce on account of all the photography involved.
I am sufficiently familiar with the extant Spanish literature on the subject to be able to confidently say that any new work will probably amount to no more than mere footnotes to Forton's works.
And I am not saying this because I think that they are bulletproof, good as they are, rather because he picked all the proverbial low hanging fruits and anybody who wishes to break new ground would have to do some extremely difficult research with not promise of any great rewards at the end. Or to put it differently, he got in early, claimed the whole field for himself, leaving precious little for others to research.
One area where an enterprising author could perhaps make a worthwhile contribution is a technical treatise of the designs and manufacturing methods employed by the pre 20th century cutlers, especially contrasting those of France with their Spanish counterparts. I say France, because by the last quarter of the 19th cntry their navajas were pouring into Spain by the millions and destroying the local industry on account of much better made and priced products.
I know that Forton, in his magnum opus, La Navaja Antigua Espanola, dedicated a chapter (Estudio Tecnico) to this subject, but I found it not quite up to the level of the rest of the work, for one as exemplified by his reluctance and or inability to even tentatively elaborate on the ratcheting teeth (carraca) found on so many navajas, an almost defining characteristic of the genre.
Cheers
Chris |
