I think he is talking about the orientation of the horn with respect to which side the hammer is on. Hammer to the heel puts the horn in the most efficient location for working on the horn. And lest we forget, as cool a source as Richardson's is, it has its anomalies. You will find proper and improper methods documented in his book. I've seen that pic. I believe also that the anvil is much closer to the forge than the basic triangle setup with a step and a half to the anvil. I consider this a variation on a theme, not a difference. 

On 3/23/2022 at 4:59 PM, ThomasPowers said:

I think it depends one what you are doing and how you do it! Like do you stand facing the side of the anvil or facing parallel to the long axis of the anvil for instance

It does depend on what you are doing, so is not an either/ or situation, its a both/ and deal. For instance, when I'm doing a half faced blow and then using the edge of my hammer face as a cross peen and drawing out the foot twards the edge or drawing out the lobes on a leaf with the cross peen fore and aft along the edge, i stand parallel to the long axes. If I am drawing out say a simple taper, my iron is often on a diagonal to the face of the anvil, and I stand perpendicular to the long axes and do most of my fo. 

Returning to an old thread with an image (from a 10th or 11th century ivory casket from Constantinople (not Istanbul) currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC) of Adam smithing while Eve works the bellows.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464020

John, cool.  that is one I haven't seen before.  Also, I don't think I've seen an anvil depicted  on top of the forge before.  The bellows appear to be the push in, pull out kind.

GNM

I think the anvil is behind the forge, rather than on top of it.

Got that thumb on top of the hammer handle. Also anvil height is either too low or too high depending but it seems he is standing to forge so likely too low. I have seen that far away stance in beginners. 

"I am just kidding around."

It is a neat early depiction. 

I thought Adam was seated on a bench while at the anvil & forge.

The inasccurate depictions of blacksmiths in art reminds me of what my late father-in-law (who was a medieval history professor) said about the artist depicting a lion in some medieval painting, "He had probably seen a lion once but it was a long time ago and from a distance."

GNM

  I see some traces of color on that.  The website lists ivory, gilt and polychromy as the mediums.  It would be interesting to see what it originally looked like.

The subject of ancient painting is quite fascinating, and it's worth noting that practically all of the marble statues of antiquity were probably painted in quite garish colors that simply didn't survive the intervening millennia. The modern understanding of ancient Greece and Rome as an environment of pristine white marble is almost entirely wrong (but that didn't stop artists and architects of the neoclassical revival of the last few centuries from trying to reproduce it).

Ivory has been used as a base for painting for centuries, as it can be polished quite smooth and thus take a great deal of fine detail. 18th and 19th century miniature portraits in particular were usually painted on plaques of ivory.

At the Archaeological Museum in Constaniople/Istanbul is a wonderfully carved (Greeks fighting Persians) huge Greek sarcophogous on which the paint is preserved (if faded) and a full color reproduction.  Very impressive.  The museum has marvelous things and is very under appreciated or visited compared with the nearby Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern (roughly across the street).  If you ever go and this is your area of interest do not miss it.

GNM

  I imagine what they used for paint or pigment is a study in itself.

  I looked into the polychromy section, some of it is garish....

  George, I visited a lot of places in the Navy when I was young and I wish I could do it all over again and appreciate it as it should be.

That's a very cool picture, thanks for sharing! 

I think it's pretty representative of . . . an artist's too often shallow knowledge of the subject beyond his/er's artistic expression. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thomas Sheard (1866–1921)
The Arab Blacksmith c.1900
oil on canvas
115 x 163cm
Bendigo Art Gallery collection 
Purchased 1903
1903.1

  My edit.  Permission to use for educational purposes.

Scott, thank you.  Interesting.  Very realistic.  I expect the figures to morph into a video and start moving.  Interestingly, I see fire, hammer, tongs, and an anvil but no bellows.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Nice painting, thanks Scott! The fellow on the right is working a double lung bag bellows to a "Probably" camel dung fire. 

Ah, I see George and I are typing at the same time again.

Frosty The Lucky.

  Do you suppose he pounded that stake anvil into a log buried in the sand?  Maybe an old tree root.  Geogre they comment on the realism on the website.  

Wood is REALLY scarce in the Arabian desert but a blacksmith was/is a wealthy man so he might have carried something in his kit.

Frosty The Lucky.

  I don't suppose it would work good in sand alone...  mayhap a rock.

It'd be okay if you wet the sand down. Don't ask me what you'd wet it down with in a desert where every drop of water is precious. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Camel pee.

40 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Wood is REALLY scarce in the Arabian desert but a blacksmith was/is a wealthy man so he might have carried something in his kit.

Probably in the form of charcoal. 

3 hours ago, Scott NC said:

Do you suppose he pounded that stake anvil into a log buried in the sand? 

When I put my cheater glasses on it does look like it's attached to some form of wood, possibly drift wood from a trader passing through.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

Pretty interesting picture. When you zoom in on the anvil it looks like the shelf that would stop it from sinking is wedged in the crotch of a sideways branch. You can also see the tip of a clay tuyere going into the fire from the right so the bag the guy on the right is holding is most likely the air supply, and I think he has a second air bladder that's empty in his other hand, double lung style as frosty suggested. Oh, and you can see (char)coal in the wide basket on the far left, maybe more in the basket in front of the center man.

I also like looking at the background, I see a cook fire in the top left corner tended by women, and 2 or 3 other possible blacksmith groups behind the woman with a child and the guy lighting his smoke with a coal. All this is going on about a day's walk from the town that you can see in the far background. Possibly getting ready for some trading?

could well be dried camel dung for forge fuel. I can even see the end of the tuyre.

    Peter O'Toole would have them running a gasser in short order...