Leather flask. Glass bottle encased in decorated leather, Italian, 1530-50.

Glass bottle encased in decorated leather (also referred to as a 'costrel').
Flat, upright bottle of pilgrim-bottle form, made of clear olive-green glass, standing on an oval wood foot and wholly encased in a seamed cover of sewn and wrought leather, with decoration in smooth relief against a stippled ground.

The upper part of the neck of the cover appears to have been torn off at early date. This would probably have had eyes for a carrying thong. This has been later replaced in a crude fashion withi what appears to be a leather horse-harness strap, which partly remains.

The front of the leather cover features: a leafy medallion containing a bust of a lady, wearing a drawn-back veil and puffed and slashed sleeves; below, a scrolled oval blank for arms, flanked by cherubs on a scrolled border. The reverse of the leather cover features: a central circular medallion containing a dancing bear, within a surround of leafy stems containing compartments with birds; above the central medallion is a rectangular medallion containing a fish or sea dragon.

Bought (Bernal Collection) £14 10s.
Notes by W.A. Thorpe ca.1959:
2178-1855

COSTREL. Flat, upright bottle of pilgrim - bottle form, of clear olive-green glass, standing on an oval wood foot and wholly encased in a seamed cover of sewn and wrought leather, with decoration in smooth relief against a stippled ground. Leather now sable.

On the front of the cover, a leafy medallion containing a bust of a lady, wearing veil drawn back and puffed and slashed sleeves; below, a scrolled oval blank for arms, flanked by cherubs standing or gargoyles on a scrolled border. On the reverse of the cover, a circular medallion containing a dancing bear, within a surround of leafy stems containing compartments with birds

Bottle probably of footless 'spa water' form encased partly for stability. The upper part of the neck of the cover, torn off at early date, probably bore eyes for a carrying thong, later rudely replaced by a horse-harness strap, part remaining.

Presumably encased as a hunting-bottle for a servant of the lady portrayed.

Provenance

Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.

In 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal's estates who were classed by the British government as his 'property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.

When Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.

This bottle may have been encased in leather in order to serve as a hunting-bottle for a servant of the lady portrayed in the decoration.

2178-1855