Powder Flask
1750-1800 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This powder flask was used to carry gunpowder. Like the pistols and guns that accompanied them, decorated flasks were costly items. Ornamented firearms and flasks reflected their owner's status and were kept as much for display as for use. Daggers, firearms, gunpowder flasks and stirrups worn with the most expensive clothing projected an image of the fashionable man-at-arms. The most finely crafted items were worn as working jewellery.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Shell with nielloed silver |
| Brief description | Powder flask made out of shell with nielloed silver mounts, Caucasus, late 18th century |
| Physical description | Shell mounted in silver with niello forming a container for black powder |
| Dimensions |
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| Summary | This powder flask was used to carry gunpowder. Like the pistols and guns that accompanied them, decorated flasks were costly items. Ornamented firearms and flasks reflected their owner's status and were kept as much for display as for use. Daggers, firearms, gunpowder flasks and stirrups worn with the most expensive clothing projected an image of the fashionable man-at-arms. The most finely crafted items were worn as working jewellery. |
| Bibliographic reference | Anthony North, An Introduction to Islamic Arms, London 1985, fig. 15e, p.23 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 354-1864 |
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| Record created | December 12, 2002 |
| Record URL |
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