Earliest Arquebusier's and Musketeer's Trapezoidal Powder Flasks, ca. 1530-1590

[Matchlock]

A rare German priming flask, probably Nuremberg, ca. 1580, the iron mounts figured and the top mount hinged for easy refills.
Height 18 cm.

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[Matchlock]

An arquebusier of Henry VIII's army, ca. 1540, carrying a trapezoid flask on his back.

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[Matchlock]

Trapezoid flasks of North Italian type, just like those in Konopiste (shown in post # 4), ca. 1550-60, are preserved in the famous historical collection at Schloss Ambras near Innsbruck, The Tyrol.
Only the basic layer of the original yellowish velvet covering the wooden body is preserved.
Please note the 1530's style flame-like ornaments on the nozzle and the central obverse mount.
(top two attachments, author's photos).

Another very rare sample from the same series failed to sell in an Italian auction in 2008 (following). Please note the pierced belt hook on the reverse.


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[Matchlock]

Another instance of a Saxon rounded, 'drop-like' shaped powder flask with obverse leather pouch, ca. 1560's and smilar to the one in post # 9;
in the collection of the Fortress (Veste) Coburg, Northern Bavaria/Franconia.

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[Matchlock]

Two small trapzezoid priming flasks, from Nuremberg deliveries of 1577-8, both featuring an unususal manually operated spring-loaded lever to cover and release the nozzle:

- the first: the wooden body covered with black velvet, the iron mounts tinned; Sotheby's, N.Y., June 15, 1991;

- the second: the wooden body covered with brown corduan leather, and displayed together with a powder flask of matching design, and complete with reverse belt hook; private colln.;


and another, the blackened wooden body with iron reinforcements on the edges painted with read lead (Mennige), ca. 1550; together with a caliverman's flask, ca. 1580-1600, the blackened wooden body of characteristic curved and flattened form, the edges reinforced with iron mounts (both sold at auction: Sotheby's, from the Collections of the Royal House of Hanover, Oct. 5-15, 2005).


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[Matchlock]

Two trapezoid flasks with reverse-mounted belt hooks.
The one on the left of North Italian type, ca. 1550-60, the wooden body covered with blackened leather, and with highly figured iron mounts, the top mount fitted with a horizontal cut-off lever of characteristically early serpent-like zoomorphic shape;

The second, smaller, obviously from the large Nuremberg series of vast supplies to various armories, of 1577/8, the wooden body covered with black velvet, the edges with tinned iron reinforcements; the horizontal cut-off and spring missing from the top mount;
cf. two samples illustrated in the bottom attachments of post # 3, on the extreme left;

the original caps missing from both nozzles.

Both sold at auction: Sotheby's, from the Collections of the Royal House of Hanover, Oct. 5-15, 2005.

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[Matchlock]

A priming flask, ca. 1580-1600, the wooden body covered with corduan leather (rubbed), the edges reinforced with tinned iron; the delicate suspension chain does not belong.

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