Powder horn with stag and boar hunts thumbnail 1
Powder horn with stag and boar hunts thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Powder horn with stag and boar hunts

Powder Horn
ca. 1650 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Germany (made)

This is a particularly large powder horn, which style and subjects depicted suggest it is made in Germany, and that it dates from about 1650.
Powder 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.


Object details

Categories
Sculpture
Sport
Object type
Powder horn
TitlePowder horn with stag and boar hunts (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Bone, with wrought iron, and belt and tassels in later glazed wood frame
Bone
Wrought Iron
Brief description
Powder horn, bone with iron fittings and tasselled frings and belt, German, ca. 1650
Physical description
Powder horn, engraved horn with wrought-iron fittings and tasselled fringe and belt. Represented are a stag hunt and a boar hunt. It is formed from the shoulder blade of an animal.
Dimensions
  • Height: 53.5cm
  • Width: 36cm
Object history
The Keeper of Architecture and Sculpture, Eric Maclagan, wrote in a memorandum to the Director, Cecil Harcourt Smith, on 4th August 1921, 'This is the largest powder horn I have ever seen. The owner is in financial difficulties & tells me his father (a dealer, I think) paid £30 for it, which I can well believe. At £15 it seems to me a bargain we ought to secure, & we have nothing really like it.' The style and subjects depicted suggest this piece is German, and dates from the mid-seventeenth century.
Bought for £15 from Maurice d'Alva, London in 1921.
Subjects depicted
Stag
Boar
Summary
This is a particularly large powder horn, which style and subjects depicted suggest it is made in Germany, and that it dates from about 1650.
Powder 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.
Bibliographic references
  • Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929 p. 101
  • Trusted, Marjorie, Baroque & Later Ivories, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013 pp. 394, 395
  • Trusted, Marjorie, Baroque & Later Ivories, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013, pp. 394, 395, cat. no. 389
  • Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929, p. 101
Collection
Sculpture Collection
Accession number
A.66-1921

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O349563/powder-horn-with-stag-and-powder-horn-unknown/
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