The lower end of the belt hooks is heart shaped on both Ottheinrich's flask dated 1552 and Marcus's item, which can also be dated 'ca. 1550' (top 2 attachments).
A finely etched patron/box for 7 paper cartridges, sold at Christie's, London, 12 Dec 2006, lot 151, showed exactly the same general early outline directly deriving from the shape of the Gothic quivers for quarrels/crossbow bolts. It was decorated with a punched trefoil as well (4 att.) and the 1550's style of its etching accounts for the fact that it was made for a guardsman of the Electors of Saxony Moritz (1547-1553) and/or August (1553-1586) (3 attachments, the portraits by Lucas Cranach the Younger).
For comparison, a row of Saxon cartrigde boxes preserved at the Historisches Museum Dresden is attached, including a counterpart to the Christie's patron: lower row, second item from the right (2 b/w att.).
Best,
m
Last edited by Matchlock; 24th June 2014 at 10:15 PM.
|