Cans for preserved fish

Set of preserve cans. The Naval Museum owns a collection of more than 300 cans and coloured metal tins from different preserve firms along the Basque coast. Many small firms came and went over the years. Each had its own distinct brand and different formats, depending on the period and product. As a result, there is a very wide variety of designs, colours, motifs, lettering, etc.; some are of considerable artistic value.

The techniques used to preserve fish go back many centuries: salting, pickling in brine, drying, etc. Following decades of progress in canning preserves, the fish preserve industry began to take off from the 1880s, particularly during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Some of the Italian names in the business arrived during that period, when several Sicilian families with experience in salting and other techniques set up forms in Basque ports.

Bibliography:

Azpiazu, José Antonio… et al. Arrain kontserbak Euskal Herrian : industria eta ondarea = Las conservas de pescado en el País Vasco : industria y patrimonio. - Donostia-San Sebastián : Untzi Museoa = Museo Naval, 1997. 227

Escudero Domínguez, Luis Javier. Italianos en el Cantábrico. Identidades e historias de una migración particular. Itsas Memoria. Revista de Estudios Marítimos del País Vasco. 7.

http://www.academia.edu/27397718/Italianos_en_el_Canta_brico._Identidades_e_historias_de_una_migracio_n_particular._ITXAS_MEMORIA_No7