CALIVERMAN's Powder Flasks and Their Leather Frogs, Nuremberg, ca. 1580-1620

[Matchlock]

We have seen finely carved flasks for calivermen of the Royal Saxon Trabantenleibgarde of the Electors Christian I and II, ca. 1590, retaining their original leather frogs, in posts # 2 and 5 above.
Here is another good sample retaining most of its original blued finish on the iron mounts, including the frog hook, ca. 1590.

m

[Matchlock]

And a fine North Italian cuir bouilli flask decorated with characteristic roped Renaissance ornamentation, iron mounts and reverse belt hook, ca. 1560-70.
The specific overall shape follows that of the contemporary side bags (German: Gürteltaschen) that - in an epoch before ca. 1600 when garments did not yet have integral bags - everybody had to wear on the belt to carry coins but also all the other little things of importance, like written documents etc.

m

[Marcus den toom]

Was the North Italian cuir bouilli flask for presentation purposes or for a (mostlikely) wealthy person?
Their seems to be some remnants of gilding? And does this flask have a (screw) lid on top? I remember from one of your other threads that this was the case with some of these flasks.

Much appreciated as always

[Matchlock]

Hi Marcus,


As the dealer's description does not mention otherwise I assume that what seems to be some gilding actually is a light reflection from the photo session.

Those flasks, like the one in discussion, are indeed characterized by having a number of screws, especially before ca. 1570. The basal plate of the top mount/lid is generally fixed by a transverse screw, as seems to be the case here.


Best,
Michael

[Martin Moser]

Very interesting! There is a very similar flask in the Deutsches Ledermuseum. A picture can be found in Rex Lingwood's discussion of cuir bouilli here: http://makersgallery.com/rexlingwood/waterer.html -> download the PDF available there.

[Matchlock]

Right,


Here it is, ca. 1560-70.

I also attached another, contemporary sample in a private collection (the belt hook missing from the reverse).


m

[Martin Moser]

Excellent details, thanks again, Michael :-)
It looks like the back plate is wood, covered with thin leather - is that correct? Is there also a wooden corpus to the front (the balbous) part? From what I read so far, it would seem that the front is leather alone, treated to be hard enough to not need any wooden or otherwise backing (i.e. cuir bouilli or similar).

Thanks,
Martin

[Matchlock]

Hi Martin,

Alas there is none of these Italian flasks in my collection so I cannot tell with certainty whether there is a wooden back plate underneath the hardened leather.

m