An early powder flask.
 

One would like to think that this recently acquired object owes its survival as a reminder to a previous owner of an unfortunate incident with an exploding powder flask . The pierced steel frame is lined with thin leather covered boards and the missing wooden base was evidently simply wedged and glued to the lining boards . Similarly the missing top has been wedged into the feathered edge of the lining boards and secured with three relatively small nails. Which shows how the composite design of these flasks ensured that such accidents , unpleasant as they no doubt were , were not necessarily life threatening.
Any comments on date and type or style of spout would be appreciated.

Hi Raf,


This is the body only (the iron top mount comprising measure pourer and spring-loaded cut-off missing, with the hook on the reverse for attaching the flask to the leather frog retained) of a North Italian musketeers powder flask with wooden body and pierced iron mounts, ca. 1580. Its present height will probably be ca. 13 to 15 cm.

I posted a very similar but completely preserved item, the body covered with ray skin, and will post more variant samples soon. The second item, with the many screws on the fluted front, is ca. 1560 and complete with its reverse frog hook; the third is ca. 1580, the hook missing from the rear. In most cases their wooden body is completely covered with either leather or fluted iron.


This shape of flasks first appeared in the 1550's and vanished in about 1600.



Best,
Michael

More samples, ranging from the 1550's (with the early-style serpent-shaped horizontal cutoff) to ca. 1590.

m

And some more.

m

No further comments at all?

Raf?

Another sample of that group, the body covered with tooled leather; Italy, ca. 1580.
The lateral loops for suspension of tassels are replacements, the hook for the belt or for a leather frog on the reverse and the cut-off spring on the basal plate of the top mount are missing.

m

This very early specimen, ca. 1540-50, preserved in the museum at the Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg) Nuremberg/Bavaria, is also covered with tooled leather and missing its carrying hook.
In all probability, it is one of the earliest of that group ever made and still has the touch of earliest trapezoid musketeers flasks of the 1530's but the brass top mount and staged, vase-like nozzle are dating criteria of the mid-16th c.

Please see also my thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...+powder+flasks

The strictly triangular shape of the flat body with straight edges, and the tooling with sparse, mostly conformable lines (geprägte Blindlinien), all account for its early date.

m

Just to complete the thread ; the flask now restored. Thanks Michael for the research.

Very good. Congratulations.

Stunningly great restoration job, Raf, ;)

And that fast!

Nice piece to look at; it was sure worth completing.


Best,
Michael