Here is another very early trapezoid flask, North Italian, ca. 1520-40, with a characteristically Italian dosing device (a horizontal cutoff) to the nozzle, a stage of development that is missing on the Basel flasks, the leather tooled in the Italian manner, and both sides completely straight, with no curving.
Imperial Castle Nuremberg, author's photos.
Bottom attachment: this the shape of a typical High Gothic quiver for quarrels/crossbow bolts; its basic form with the straight sides - and the later, concavely curved types - strongly influenced the earliest trapezoid powder flasks and, for the complete short span of time of their production, which was only from ca. 1550-1590, the rare patrons for paper cartridges:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...per+cartridges
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...per+cartridges
First quiver: Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt, the second in a private collection.
Author's photgraphs.
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