[Chris Evans]

Hi Gav,

It is well known that by the middle of the 19th century the Spanish cutlery industry was on its knees and could barely resist the flood of French imports that poured into the country in millions - All this on account of poor quality and high prices (Referenec:Forton). According to Forton, the halcyon era of the Spanish cutlery industry was before the 19th century.

Whilst Spain did have some colonies in the late 1800s and it may have exported navajas to these, I don't think the volume would have been sufficiently great to warrant a maker or his representative to travel with gigantic display pieces. Fernando did mention that Spanish navajas found their way into Portugal, so depending on the volume of trade, that is one possibility. Also, small quantities were sent to Sth America but I am led to believe that the trade never amounted to much. From the 1850s on, the great cutlery exporting nations were England, France and Germany.

In the 20th century, the `navajas de muestra', literally show pieces, were generally displayed at factories/workshops, shops and `ferias', (markets/fairs), as evidenced by photos . As for the olden days we can only guess, but probably did not differ greatly from later times. As well, I imagine that there must have been trade shows and industrial expositions, held both in Spain and abroad and it is entirely conceivable that some cutlers were taken along to complement other exhibits, even though the expected interest in their ware would have been small.

The source of the photo is "La Cuchilleria De Albacete En El Siglo XX"

Cheers
Chris