Not currently on display at the V&A

Powder Flask

17th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a power flask made in the 17th century in Germany. The flask is made of a pierced tortoiseshell relief carved with a representation of Orpheus and the beasts.

Powder flasks or horns are portable containers of wood, horn, metal, leather or ceramic used to hold the priming powder or gunpowder for firearms. They normally terminated in a metal nozzle which also served as a powder measure, closed by a plug or spring cap, and are often highly decorated.

Gunpowder began to be transported in pouches or more rigid containers at about the same date as the introduction of hand-held firearms in the fifteenth century. Such flask might have a military purpose, or be used for hunting. The very decorative pieces were above all a singn of rank, and at the same time aesthetic objects in their own right, and probably never actually functioned as containers for gunpowder.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Relief carved and pierced tortoise shell
Brief description
Powder flask, pierced tortoiseshell relief, covered with velvet, bound with iron, on the one side a medallion with Orpheus and the beasts, Germany, 17th century
Physical description
Power flask, covered with velvet, having on one side an oval medallion of tortoise-shell with Orpheus and the beasts in pierced work.
Dimensions
  • Height: 13.97cm
  • Length at bottom length: 12.06cm
Object history
Bought in 1872.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This is a power flask made in the 17th century in Germany. The flask is made of a pierced tortoiseshell relief carved with a representation of Orpheus and the beasts.

Powder flasks or horns are portable containers of wood, horn, metal, leather or ceramic used to hold the priming powder or gunpowder for firearms. They normally terminated in a metal nozzle which also served as a powder measure, closed by a plug or spring cap, and are often highly decorated.

Gunpowder began to be transported in pouches or more rigid containers at about the same date as the introduction of hand-held firearms in the fifteenth century. Such flask might have a military purpose, or be used for hunting. The very decorative pieces were above all a singn of rank, and at the same time aesthetic objects in their own right, and probably never actually functioned as containers for gunpowder.
Bibliographic reference
List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington, Acquired During the Year 1872, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., p. 108
Collection
Accession number
1286-1872

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Record createdSeptember 12, 2008
Record URL
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