Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - CALIVERMAN's Powder Flasks and Their Leather Frogs, Nuremberg, ca. 1580-1620

Matchlock · 15th April 2014, 08:46 PM

Here is a caliverman's flask I photographed 30 years ago in the reserve collection of the St.-Annen-Museum Lübeck, Lower Saxony, Germany.
The obverse and small sides of the wooden body are profusely carved with scales.
Following the usual formal criteria, a date of 'ca. 1600 to early 17th century' would seem appropriate. However, a 'military' wheellock musket, the lock struck with the Suhl proof mark SVL and the octagonal barrel retaining its original bluing, and the whole gun datable to ca. 1640, features a stock carved in exactly the same manner. It is preserved in the reserve collection of the Gäubodenmuseum of Straubing, Lower Bavaria, and would go perfectly well with the flask stylistically. Thus I am prone to assign the same date to this flask, making it the latest of its kind known to me, from the 'heyday' of the horrible Thirty Years War.

Best,
Michael

15th April 2014, 08:46 PM	#54
Matchlock (deceased) Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking Posts: 4,310	Here is a caliverman's flask I photographed 30 years ago in the reserve collection of the St.-Annen-Museum Lübeck, Lower Saxony, Germany. The obverse and small sides of the wooden body are profusely carved with scales. Following the usual formal criteria, a date of 'ca. 1600 to early 17th century' would seem appropriate. However, a 'military' wheellock musket, the lock struck with the Suhl proof mark SVL and the octagonal barrel retaining its original bluing, and the whole gun datable to ca. 1640, features a stock carved in exactly the same manner. It is preserved in the reserve collection of the Gäubodenmuseum of Straubing, Lower Bavaria, and would go perfectly well with the flask stylistically. Thus I am prone to assign the same date to this flask, making it the latest of its kind known to me, from the 'heyday' of the horrible Thirty Years War. Best, Michael Attached Images