Earliest Arquebusier's and Musketeer's Trapezoidal Powder Flasks, ca. 1530-1590

[Matchlock]

Here is another very early trapezoid flask, North Italian, ca. 1520-40, with a characteristically Italian dosing device (a horizontal cutoff) to the nozzle, a stage of development that is missing on the Basel flasks, the leather tooled in the Italian manner, and both sides completely straight, with no curving.
Imperial Castle Nuremberg, author's photos.

Bottom attachment: this the shape of a typical High Gothic quiver for quarrels/crossbow bolts; its basic form with the straight sides - and the later, concavely curved types - strongly influenced the earliest trapezoid powder flasks and, for the complete short span of time of their production, which was only from ca. 1550-1590, the rare patrons for paper cartridges:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...per+cartridges

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...per+cartridges

First quiver: Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt, the second in a private collection.
Author's photgraphs.


m

[Marcus den toom]

Mi Michael,

A bit off topic, but i saw in you post 44 picture 4 a arquebuse with a lock on the leftside. I was wondering if this is due because of the image beeing inverted or because their where really arquebuses like that with a lock on the left side? It would be a suprise if it was, seeing as this would be a custom job for one particulair soldier?

Best,
Marcus

[Matchlock]

Hi Marcus,


It is part of a generally accepted basic knowledge in art history that 15th/16th century artisans - in the case of this woodcut it was Hans Schäufelein, Nuremberg, ca. 1513 - just did not care if their artwork appeared mirrored and laterally reversed.

This fact can be verified by many pieces of the fine arts. In some cases it doubtlessly prevented the artisan from facing the dilemma that he would have to depict the lock mechanism of a gun. That, in my opinion, is exactly the reason why many guns, up till the end of the 18th century, are represented from the 'left' side, opposite of where normall the lock would be - simply because the respective artisan avoided being technically exact.

By at least the 17th century though, we know some guns that were actually made with left-hand sided locks, for left-aiming persons.

Enclosed please find a Resurrection scene by Jan Joest, in the Nicolai Church in Kalkar, of 1506-08, and others.


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

... made for a left aiming arquebusier.

I knew I had seen it somewhere before, and here it is, right in my archives: Nuremberg, ca. 1525-30, in the Brukenthal Museum Sibiu/Hermannstadt, Romania.
The long tubular rear sight missing from the barrel, the two original pods for it preserved.

m

[Marcus den toom]

Hi Michl,

Thank you for the pictures of the left handed arquebuse, i will save them in my personal records
I never saw such a left handed arquebuse, the only lefthanded firearms from that periode i know of where pistols.

best,
Marcus

[Matchlock]

These musketeers flasks were sold Hermann Historica, Munich, 17 Oct 2012.

The first is of Nuremberg make and of a type that was ordered in large numbers by many armories, among them the Styrian Armory in Graz, in 1577-78. The wooden body is covered with velvet which was either black, blue or green, while the iron mounts contrasted with their tinned surfaces.
So common is this group of musketeers flasks that they are worth collecting only in the best condition, with their iron mounts still tinned and the reverse belt hook and chained nozzle lid still preserved! The latter is missing on this flask in discussion but attached see a photo of two especially fine samplse in my collection, their bodies covered with blue and green velvet respectively, and retaining their original wool and raw silk tassels (both in the back row of the glass case).
Next in line, after the photo of my glass case, is a small Saxon powder flask covered with black leather and combined with a leather pouch with pull strings (missing), ca. 1560-70; the leather pouch did certainly not hold balls but maybe reserve pyrites and little cleaning tools like a worm and scourer.
Finally, there is a Swiss musketeers flask, ca. 1580, the wooden body covered with green velvet, the tassels modern, and a Swiss priming flask, the body covered with brown velvet.

m

[Matchlock]

This specimen of ca. 1570, the wooden body covered with greenish velvet (now heavily rubbed), featured a very rare sprung nozzle lid and, almost uniquely!, retained its original delicate touch hole pricker but was missing the reverse belt hook - a deficit rendering it unacceptable for any serious collection.

The American auction house refuses providing any information on the prices their objects sold for, so you may guess it went extremely cheap.


Best,
Michael