Ethnographic Arms & Armour
 

Go Back   Ethnographic Arms & Armour > Discussion Forums > European Armoury
FAQ Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 30th July 2009, 02:22 PM   #1
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default A Nuremberg Musketeer's Combined Powder & Priming Flask & Cartridge Holder, ca. 1600

For my one thousandth post I chose this highly unusual specimen; it is finely made in each detail and really worth a close look.

Internally it consists of a two chamber system for barrel and priming powder with separate tapering sprung tap nozzles respectively; the nozzle for barrel powder has the usual spring loaded cut off lever for dosage at the base. The wrought iron lid base is struck with the maker's mark, a horn with an arrow thru the loop, and the Nuremberg City mark. The trapezoidal wooden core is covered with blackened leather, the edges reinforced with blackened iron. There are four rings for a suspension cord and a curved iron belt hook at the back. All of the spring actions are very tight even after 400 years. The lid bears an old collection number in white ink. The height is 23 cm.

The plicated leather pouch on the front with lid (draw string incomplete) contains a tinned iron cartrigde holder with three compartments for paper cartridges of a caliber of ca. 20 mm each, meaning that this is an extremely rare piece of infantry combined accouterment for a musketeer or guardsman with a heavy musket, probably a wheel-lock.

The whole piece is extremely well wrought, finished and preserved in virtually untouched, 'near mint' condition. It came from the Henk L. Visser collection via Bonhams. None of the usual Thirty Years War mass production flasks compares to this, so it must be one of a very small number of combination flasks made in ca. 1600 for a limited group like a guard.

Only two other flasks of that group are known to have survived besides mine, and both of them are preserved in rather poor condition. Both bear the identical maker's mark and Nuremberg mark. One is in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, it came from the Belgian 19th century collection of the Musée Baron van den Bogaerde; the cut off lever is a poor replacement and all of the original blackening of the iron surfaces has gone due to crude cleaning.
The other is preserved in Kreuzenstein Castle near Vienna; only a poor b/w print of it exists but one can see that the priming nozzle is deformed and has had crude repair to the sprung tap.

I attach scans of both flasks for comparison.

Best,
Michael
Attached Images
            

Last edited by Matchlock; 30th July 2009 at 03:41 PM.
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30th July 2009, 02:31 PM   #2
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default

A view into the leather pouch of my flask showing the wooden base of the cartridge holder, the latter taken out.
Attached Images
  
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30th July 2009, 02:40 PM   #3
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default

The two flasks in Paris and Kreuzenstein for comparison.

m
Attached Images
     

Last edited by Matchlock; 30th July 2009 at 03:14 PM.
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 30th July 2009, 03:21 PM   #4
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default

The presence of the cartridge holder in my specimen proves that both the German and French museum descriptions 'Kugeltasche/sac à balles' (bullet pouch) of the leather pouch are definitely wrong. Consequently, the cartridge holders must be missing from the leather pouches on the other flasks.

Michael
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 4th April 2012, 08:12 PM   #5
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default An Insight on the Wooden Body of a Trapezoidal Musketeer's Flask

Enjoy.
m
Attached Images
 
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18th June 2012, 10:17 PM   #6
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default

For earliest trapezoidal musketeer's flasks please see

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...s+powder+flask
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10th January 2014, 07:26 PM   #7
Matchlock
(deceased)
 
Matchlock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking
Posts: 4,310
Default

Views of the flask body, the top mount removed, with the belt hook unscrewed, and of the inside of the top mount showing the small, thin, iron powder-stopping plate riveted to the cut-off lever, and moving together with it, thus allowing powder to enter the nozzle.

Please note that almost all the original blued and blackened surfaces are still retained in 'untouched' condition!


m
Attached Images
       

Last edited by Matchlock; 10th January 2014 at 08:50 PM.
Matchlock is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 06:57 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Posts are regarded as being copyrighted by their authors and the act of posting material is deemed to be a granting of an irrevocable nonexclusive license for display here.