Dear Jim,
I shall try to find the paper of Lothe and if I found I scan it. The French language is not a problem for an Italian. The idea that there were producers in Europe for the African market seems very likely because trade even in the far past was always very active. Whenever there was a request there were merchants ready to answer. I was astonished to read that in the XVI century at the court of the emperor of Ethiopia there were many Italians that could not return to their country because the Emperor was pleased to have foreigners in the court (Crawford O.G.S., 1955. Ethiopian itineraries. Ca 1400-1524. The Hakluyt Society, second series, n.CIX, Cambridge University Press, 230 pp). It is therefore difficult to distinguish between the two. It would be nice to have some blades that are for sure African re-productions but my experience is very limited and I think it would be anyway difficult to be sure. The best way I think is to have a large number of these examples, some of them on surely european blades and to evaluate style and differences. I shall be pleased if some of the readers will post other examples
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