A fine North Italian combined powder flask and wheel-lock-spanner, ca. 1550-60

Matchlock · 15th November 2008, 12:06 PM

This is highly unusual in being a combined powder flask, turnscrew and swivel two size wheel-lock spanner. Its surface retains much of its original blueing. The decoration consists of punchend scrolls, circles and, along the edges, what seems to be a stitch pattern.

Less that 10 similar flasks are known, among them pieces in the Wallace Collection London, the Odescalchi Collection Rome, and another of unknown whereabouts.

The explanation for the stitch pattern is that in the first half of the 16th century, gun stocks and powder flasks were sometimes covered with velvet or leather which had to be stitched along each and every edge. You can see these stitches on two velvet-covered matchlock gun stocks of ca. 1535-40 in the Vienna armory and on one of two wheel-lock harquebuses originally belonging to King Henry VIII, now preserved in the Tower of London (both locks now missing, one incorrectly replaced by a 19th century dummy matchlock mechanism).

Another fine wheel-lock harquebus in the Vienna collection, ca. 1540-5, actually never had any textile covering to its pear wood full stock, yet it shows the stitching pattern along its edges - now shrunken, as is the case with my powder flask, to decorative relics of what used be functional some years ago.

I attatch some photos I took of the three Vienna guns 20 years ago.

Michael

15th November 2008, 12:06 PM	#1
Matchlock (deceased) Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bavaria, Germany - the center of 15th and 16th century gunmaking Posts: 4,310	A fine North Italian combined powder flask and wheel-lock-spanner, ca. 1550-60 This is highly unusual in being a combined powder flask, turnscrew and swivel two size wheel-lock spanner. Its surface retains much of its original blueing. The decoration consists of punchend scrolls, circles and, along the edges, what seems to be a stitch pattern. Less that 10 similar flasks are known, among them pieces in the Wallace Collection London, the Odescalchi Collection Rome, and another of unknown whereabouts. The explanation for the stitch pattern is that in the first half of the 16th century, gun stocks and powder flasks were sometimes covered with velvet or leather which had to be stitched along each and every edge. You can see these stitches on two velvet-covered matchlock gun stocks of ca. 1535-40 in the Vienna armory and on one of two wheel-lock harquebuses originally belonging to King Henry VIII, now preserved in the Tower of London (both locks now missing, one incorrectly replaced by a 19th century dummy matchlock mechanism). Another fine wheel-lock harquebus in the Vienna collection, ca. 1540-5, actually never had any textile covering to its pear wood full stock, yet it shows the stitching pattern along its edges - now shrunken, as is the case with my powder flask, to decorative relics of what used be functional some years ago. I attatch some photos I took of the three Vienna guns 20 years ago. Michael Attached Images