Powder Flask
ca. 1690 - ca. 1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This carved ivory powder flask is decorated with hunting scenes. Along the top edge are a dragon, a dog and a hare in the round; the nozzle of the flask is in the form of a dragon's head, at the other end is a human head with ram's horns. The flask is German and dates to about 1690-1700.
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.
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 | Carved ivory |
| Brief description | Powder flask, carved ivory, decorated with hunting scenes, Germany, ca. 1690-1700 |
| Physical description | An ivory tusk carved in low relief with hunting scenes; on one side men and dogs are hunting a bull, and on the other a lioness is being hunted by men and dogs, including one man on horseback. The nozzle of the flask is in the form of a dragon's head, at the other end is a human head with ram's horns. Running along the edge is a dragon chasing two dogs. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Bought by the Museum from a Mr Whitehead for £22 2s. in 1886. Previously bought for £21 by Mr Whitehead at Christie Manson and Woods, London, 13 May 1886, lot 238; previously on loan to the Museum from the Rt. Hon. Alexander James Beresford Beresford-Hope Esq. M.P. The ivory is in the tradition of the works of Johann Michael Maucher (1645-after 1690), although the carving is somewhat broad, and the present work probably dates from the end of the seventeenth century. A parallel for the overall form is provided by a powder flask in the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum, Munich (inv. no. 13, 206), although interestingly the Munich example, thought to be eighteenth-century, is inscribed with Russian mottoes, and is therefore believed to be Russian. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This carved ivory powder flask is decorated with hunting scenes. Along the top edge are a dragon, a dog and a hare in the round; the nozzle of the flask is in the form of a dragon's head, at the other end is a human head with ram's horns. The flask is German and dates to about 1690-1700. 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 references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 263-1886 |
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| Record created | October 29, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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