Persian ? Powder Flask and Ramrod
 

Hi,
All steel powder flask 7 1/2 inches at the widest and the ramrod at 13 1/2 inches is obviously pistol sized. I've seen these tagged as Persian, Ottoman, Balkan and Indo-Persian and I have no doubt there is cross cultural form and usage, if anyone can give me a more definitive attribution I would be grateful. The timeline I would suspect is somewhere in the 19thC. The hanger is to a degree incomplete i.e the leather loss on one of the strands and the lack of an end tassel/bauble on another. On the other hand I haven't found many of these complete with hanger and ramrod although I don't know if flask and ramrod were always or mostly carried together en suite as it were. Thanks for your assistance as always.
Regards,
Norman.

It's Ottoman military, Norman. It appears c. 1830s and the type remains in production into the late 19th century.

Hi Oliver,
Ottoman military, that's a nice surprise. Thanks as always for your help.
My Regards,
Norman.

Nice example, Norman.

... with a system similar to mine, but which was told (15 years ago) to have a completely different provenance.


http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...o+powder+flask

I confirm what colleagues said, Ottoman military, pictured in the Book Description of Egypt, end of 18th early 19th c.
They are common, because military...
:)

Hi Fernando,
An interesting piece. I guess the system was widespread re the functionality and the form varied from place to place.
My Regards,
Norman.

Hi Kubur,
Thanks for the info. Re the availability of these. They don't appear to be common where I am but it is possibly different for you. I can only find two more examples with the hanger and ramrod both from a German auction house, photos attached.
My Regards,
Norman.

Hi Norman

Congratulations. Nice find. I agree with others here, Ottoman Military with a plain, robust built priming flask and suma rod. The flasks show up often. The plain loading rods, not so often. And the suspension cords much less often.
To me, it looks like both the flask and rod were indeed used as a team. Possibly both were cleaned sometime in the past, as there doesn't appear to be much patina remaining. But none the less a nice set. By the wear on the leather and cord it appears this set was carried in action. And of course, that's what they were made for. LOL
If you look at the last two photos you posted, the photo on the left shows the suspension cord un-knotted more showing a larger loop. I can easily picture this loop suspended around the neck with the flask and rod positioned about the middle of the torso, and the suma rod tucked into the sash when not in use.
This makes sense while on horseback for reloading pistols.
Again, nice find. This would display great with a single or pair of Ottoman pistols. Nice addition to your collection.

Rick

Here is the same flask from my collection. Seems they were all made identical.
Unless damaged, most of these military flasks you encounter today are still in working order. Which attests to the simple, robust build quality. In fact, I've used mine at the range to load pistols.
When I first obtained it, it was missing the fill plug on the back end. So, for a plug, I located an original top screw from an India pattern Brown Bess lock that had the bottom part of the threads broken off. I had new threads cut on the shortened screw to match the threads of the flask, and it was complete again and ready for use. The patina of the screw was a close match to the flask.

Rick

For your archives, guys
the drawing from the book that I mentionned.
:)

Hi Kubur

Thanks for that last detail. I'll add this to my library. Notice the cord can be adjusted as desired.

Rick

This is my sample.
 

The same!

Hi Rick, Eftihis and Kubur,
Thanks for the info and extra images it's much appreciated.
My Regards,
Norman.