Early round wooden powder flask

adrian · 1st May 2018, 10:30 AM

At an auction last weekend I was fortunate to acquire an early powder flask which generated very little interest when it came time to bid.

It is obviously old but I did not think it likely to be as early as the 16th Century as per the brief description. It has a small leather draw string bag on one side, this I at first thought to be for flints & I therefore thought it likely to be a flask for early flintlocks.

However having spend several hours perusing the excellent information that Michael "Matchlock" (R.I.P.) posted here on early powder flasks I find that this is indeed most likely 16th century & that the pouch would not therefore have been intended for flints, but for other small items.

The info is however mainly about other shapes of flasks, such as Trapezoid & although Michael most tantalizingly showed a photo of an almost identical flask (see 2nd photo) in a collection (his I assume) I have been unable to locate any discussion about it. I would like to learn what country of origin is most likely & also if for military as opposed to sporting use & any narrowing of the date range would be very nice.

Does anyone recall having seen one of these discussed before or able to help with info in any way please?

1st May 2018, 10:30 AM	#1
adrian Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 125	Early round wooden powder flask At an auction last weekend I was fortunate to acquire an early powder flask which generated very little interest when it came time to bid. It is obviously old but I did not think it likely to be as early as the 16th Century as per the brief description. It has a small leather draw string bag on one side, this I at first thought to be for flints & I therefore thought it likely to be a flask for early flintlocks. However having spend several hours perusing the excellent information that Michael "Matchlock" (R.I.P.) posted here on early powder flasks I find that this is indeed most likely 16th century & that the pouch would not therefore have been intended for flints, but for other small items. The info is however mainly about other shapes of flasks, such as Trapezoid & although Michael most tantalizingly showed a photo of an almost identical flask (see 2nd photo) in a collection (his I assume) I have been unable to locate any discussion about it. I would like to learn what country of origin is most likely & also if for military as opposed to sporting use & any narrowing of the date range would be very nice. Does anyone recall having seen one of these discussed before or able to help with info in any way please? Attached Images Last edited by adrian; 1st May 2018 at 11:47 AM.