14th-15th c.: How Powder and Ball etc. Were Kept Before Powder Flasks Appeared

[Matchlock]

And the rest, including

- a stone sculpture of an arquebusier and his horn, ca. 1490-1500, in the cathedral in Chartreuse, France

- and a painting of the Resurrection, from the Herscheider Altar, ca. 1510, in Burg Altena, depicting an arquebusier with his leather belt bag, small round priming flask worn on the chest, and powder horn


m

[Matchlock]

I addition to the attachments from the shooting rage of ca. 1520-30 posted above, depicted in the Löffelholz manuscript, I wish to point out some details.

The first close-up attached shows an arquebusier's ammunition chest containing a couple of loads (Ladungen) explictly labeled as comprising powder and ball in the description (!), spare powder in the drawer on the left, and balls assorted at the bottom.
This makes this tiny bottled load (illustrated not to scale because it was important for the Late-medieval artist!) the ancestor of paper cartridges which are recorded by at least the midldle of the 16th c.
Illustrated on the right is a powder bucket, and a funnel for fiilling the powder below.

Another close-up of such a bottled load is attached.


m

[Matchlock]

For more information, please refer to my related threads and posts:



http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...est+bandoliers

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...s+powder+flask

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...d+flask+munich

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...s+powder+flask

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...s+powder+flask

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...artridge+boxes



m

[Matchlock]

In the Museo d'Arti Applicate (Museum of Applied Arts), Milan, there is a highly interesting and small, beveled container of thin, embossed and blued/browned iron, the top fitted with a hinged lid, the sides fitted with four loops for suspension.
It is dated 18th c. by the museum and believed to have been used for grenades.
Its measurements are 19 x 18 x 11 cm, at a weight of 60 grams.

Stylistic comparisons clearly denote that the riveted petaled decoration on the lid is characteristic of the Late-Gothic period, 15th c., corresponding to the decoration on a huge number of wooden caskets and chests, mostly West or North German or French.


In my eyes, this little portable container was most probably meant to carry the ammunition of an arquebusier: a forerunner of mid-16th c. cartridge boxes.



Best,
m

[Matchlock]

The Battle of Pavia, 1525, revisited.
Three details from an attachment to post #2, a Brussels tapestry in the Museo di Capodimonte Naples, showing the top mounts of early powder horns comprising nozzle and vertical cut-off measure.

m

[Matchlock]

This is the oldest known large powder horn (29 cm) that ever occurred to me, ca. 1540-60.
The basal plate on the iron top mount shows a Late-Gothic embossed and curved decoration and a combined spring-loaded top lever and cap, on the underside (belly) there is a spanner for a wheellock.

All the iron mounts retain a lot of their original blueing, the item is heavily patinated overall.

Sold Czerny's, 16.2.2002, lot 266.


m

[Matchlock]

Two more Late-Gothic German ammunition chests/caskets partitioned for various accouterments are illustrated in the Kunst- und Wunderbuch (Book of Arts, Crafts and Miracles), Weimar, ca. 1520.

Please note small leather pouches (for bullets?) and longish measures in the fist chest, a very early ball mold in the second, plus another similar mold!


m