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

[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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[Matchlock]

Another one, of Italian type, ca. 1560-70, the trapezoid body covered with corduan leather, the edges reinforces with tinned iron mounts.
The spring-loaded cut-off from the base of the top mount, the cap from the nozzle and the belt from the reverse side all missing.

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[Matchlock]

A very fine flask, Northern Italy, ca. 1550-60, the wooden body covered with tooled and embossed leather decorated with symmetric Renaissance foliage.
The belt hook and rings for suspension all missing.

Czerny, March 15, 2008.


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[Matchlock]

A very early sample of a trapezoid arquebusier's or musketier's flask, the wooden body covered with white paper; Austria/Bavaria, ca. 1550-60.
Hermann Historica, May 2nd, 2007.

Similar samples preserved in the collection of Schloß Baldern (attached below, together with curved caliverman's flasks of ca. 1600); author's photo, 1985.


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[Matchlock]

There is a whole number of finely made and preserved trapezoid flasks in my collection, the finest of them all Nuremberg, ca. 1590-1600, the wooden body covered with blue velvet, and retaining its original purple woolen tassels (top attachments).
The spring loaded nozzle cap with its long lever is a feature found only on the best quality trapezoid flasks.

Next: a fine Nuremberg flask, from the deliveries to the Graz armory in 1577/8, the iron mounts tinned, the body covered with green velvet; the nozzle retaining its rare original cap attached by a delicate chain, and the four suspension rings retaining their original fine tassels of interwoven green, red, purple and yellow raw silk and wool!

Following a fine matching priming flask, Nuremberg, 1577/8.

And an Austrian flask, made in a Nuremberg workshop, ca. 1560/70, complete with its spring loaded nozzle cap and lever; the body covered with paper painted green, and the iron mounts retaining much of their original minium (red lead) paint (now mostly hidden beneath an 18th c. black lacquer);
the whole preserved in virtually 'untouched' condition throughout.
The colorful impact of this flasks represents the traditional basic colors of the Late Gothic period, red and green.



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