Verijero knife.

Verijero knife. Punch: Casa Escasany. Buenos Aires. First half of the 20th century.

Classic model marketed by the Buenos Aires jeweler Casa Escasany. Handle and scabbard with careful chiselled decoration representing leaves and flowers, with small touches of gold leaf, openwork and chiselled with similar motifs. We find the “CE” hallmark and the rudder (distinctive of this jewelery) on the handle and on the frog stud, together with those corresponding to the titles of the metals used. Measures. Blade length: 18.2 cm. Overall length: 31.4 cm.

Creole blade of local production; with a thin oval section button, notched spine, concave heel, edge and counter edge, and the mark: ACERO SUPERIOR / IND. ARGENTINA and within a hexagon, PF, alluding to Platería Fierro, a house that, created by Francisco Fierro in 1885 as an importer, used this stamp at the time of World War II, when import restrictions led to ordering its production at the La Movediza factory in Tandil. [1]

Casa Escasany made knives with "El Payador" and "L'Extol" blades, both trademarks registered by this firm and also, with "La Modeviza" blades, perhaps this explains the presence of this variant manufactured by the same Tandil smiths. Escasany's buyers -especially Messrs. M. E. Bernetti and later, Paredes-, selected pieces from numerous silversmiths, especially large chiselers, whose pieces came out with the stamp of the Buenos Aires firm. We have references to his choices in various workshops, we mention here that of "Pepino" Letta (uncle of the goldsmiths Francisco and Ángel Tramontano) and César Tornelli, active between 1909 and 1948; They also chose pieces from Vicente Cozzolino's jewelry store and the endearing Armando Ferreira was able to tell us that another point of his choice was the Dámaso Arce workshop, located in Olavarría. In this dynamic and taking into account that Escasany published its catalogs that it distributed throughout the country, it is very clear that, once the silversmiths were selected, they received purchase orders for x number of pieces for each item and each size.

Active since the end of the 19th century in Buenos Aires, Escasany knew how to establish itself with great prestige and through catalogs -printed in high quality- offered a wide variety of everyday items, including jewelry and silver objects, such as knives and mates.

Note:

1. Guido Chester and Jorge Celestino, Argentine knives. Silversmiths and brands, Buenos Aires, Fripp Editor, 2021, p. 23.