Painted blue enamel priming flask with gilt brass mounts and original gold wire strings and tassles, Germany, ca. 1680.

Painted blue enamel case with gilt brass mounts with original gold wire strings and tassles

This priming flask was used for carrying very fine gunpowder that was placed, in a measured dose, in the priming pan of a firearm. When the gun was fired the priming powder would ignite sending sparks through a small channel into the base of the gun-barrel that would ignite the main charge of gunpowder causing the gun to fire.

This example is of gilt brass frame decorated with painted blue enamel depicting on one side, a hunter mounted on horseback with a dog giving chase to a large stag and on the other by the hunter on horseback arriving as his dog pounces on a wild board. Hunting was a conservative sport that employed equipment and rituals that, by the 17th century, had long since ceased to offer training for warfare. The crossbow, for example, carried on in use in the hunt for over a century after it had disappeared from the battlefield. The scenes on this flask are typical of many firearms and their accessories in that they depict more traditional weapons in their decoration. On the enamel plaques, the stag is about to be attacked with a sword while the boar hunter, on the other side, is reaching for his spear presented by an attendant.

The gold wire strings and tassles on this flask are original and are rare survivors. Hunting weapons and accessories were sometimes given as diplomatic gifts.

The museum bought this flask for £15 in 1855 from the collection of Ralph Bernal (1783-1854) who was a renowned collector. Objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A.

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.

Firearms became more and more sophisticated from the 16th-century and required a number of accessories to load and operate them. The main charge, placed in the barrel with the shot, was carried in the powder flask. Smaller priming flasks contained fine-grain powder for priming the pans of wheel-lock firearms. The flask would have been part of a set including other accessories required for a weapon including spanners for the mechanism and measured charges.

Like the pistols and guns that accompanied them, decorated flasks were costly items. Inlaid firearms and flasks reflected the 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 warrior. The most finely crafted items were worn as jewellery: the similarity between this flask and contemporary watch-cases is obvious.

This powder flask was used to carry gunpowder. A measured quantity of powder was drawn off by using the spring-loaded pivoting cap on the nozzle.

Firearms became more and more sophisticated during the 16th-century but still required a number of accessories to load and operate them. The main charge, placed in the barrel with the shot, was carried in the powder flask. Smaller priming flasks contained fine-grain powder for priming the pans of wheel-lock firearms. Flasks were attached to a bandolier, a type of sling worn over the shoulder or around the waist, from which hung the various accessories required for a weapon including spanners for the mechanism, measured charges, powder flasks and priming flasks.

Arms and armour are rarely associated with art. However, they were influenced by the same design sources as other art forms including architecture, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, stained glass and ceramics. These sources had to be adapted to awkwardly shaped devices required to perform complicated technical functions. Armour and weapons were collected as works of art as much as military tools.

Like the pistols and guns that accompanied them, decorated flasks were costly items. Inlaid firearms and flasks reflected the owners' 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.

2045-1855