CALIVERMAN's Powder Flasks and Their Leather Frogs, Nuremberg, ca. 1580-1620

[Matchlock]

Two more of the Saxon flask with the elaborately pierced and gilt mounts.


And the gilt-mounted Augsburg or Nuremberg flask, its body made of copper-gilt brass throughout.


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[Matchlock]

More of this stunning flask in the North Italian manner.
I seems like there is a central ball compartment in the bottom mount.

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[Matchlock]

Jacob de Gheyn's caliverman (Schütze) filling a definite portion of powder from his horn (note the frog hook!) into the barrel of his caliver (Schützenrohr), 1608.

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[Matchlock]

Pieter Snayers (*1592 in Antwerp, + ca. 1667 in Brussels) was a famous and prolific painter of historic battle scenes.
Please note the battle formations as squares of musketeers, calivermen, pikemen etc., which were charateristic of that period of time.

From top:

- Battle of White Mountain near Prague, Nov. 8, 1620, the first big battle of the Thirty Years War (1618-48)

- Siege of the Fortress of Löwen near Vienna, with many close-ups of weapons and accouterments, such as matchlock muskets, musket rests, bandoliers, drums and two lengths of matchcord kept in hand smoldering at both ends

- Siege of Vienna, June 5-12, 1619

- Battle of Lützen, Nov. 16, 1632, where the Swedish King Gustav Adolf died of musket wounds


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

The fighting order at the Battle of Lützen, Nov. 16, 1632, of both the Swedish and Imperial forces.

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[Matchlock]

This finely made Nuremberg specimen I photographed at an auction viewing in 2009.

Please also note the close-ups of the original woollen tassels of another caliverman's flask.


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[Matchlock]

On the right is a caliverman's flask with plain wooden body, ca. 1580-1600, in the reserve collection of the City Museum of Köln (Cologne).

Author's photo, 1987.

For more on trapezoid flasks like those depicted in the photo, please see my thread
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15724

[Matchlock]

A characteristic Nuremberg made and engraved caliverman's flask of bleached cowhorn, retaining its originally blackened iron mounts and frog hook, the body dated 1607.
Please remember that, contrary to the dealer's assertion, this is NOT a musketeer's flask!

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[Matchlock]

We have seen finely carved flasks for calivermen of the Royal Saxon Trabantenleibgarde of the Electors Christian I and II, ca. 1590, retaining their original leather frogs, in posts # 2 and 5 above.
Here is another good sample retaining most of its original blued finish on the iron mounts, including the frog hook, ca. 1590.

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[Matchlock]

And a fine North Italian cuir bouilli flask decorated with characteristic roped Renaissance ornamentation, iron mounts and reverse belt hook, ca. 1560-70.
The specific overall shape follows that of the contemporary side bags (German: Gürteltaschen) that - in an epoch before ca. 1600 when garments did not yet have integral bags - everybody had to wear on the belt to carry coins but also all the other little things of importance, like written documents etc.

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[Marcus den toom]

Was the North Italian cuir bouilli flask for presentation purposes or for a (mostlikely) wealthy person?
Their seems to be some remnants of gilding? And does this flask have a (screw) lid on top? I remember from one of your other threads that this was the case with some of these flasks.

Much appreciated as always

[Matchlock]

Hi Marcus,


As the dealer's description does not mention otherwise I assume that what seems to be some gilding actually is a light reflection from the photo session.

Those flasks, like the one in discussion, are indeed characterized by having a number of screws, especially before ca. 1570. The basal plate of the top mount/lid is generally fixed by a transverse screw, as seems to be the case here.


Best,
Michael

[Martin Moser]

Very interesting! There is a very similar flask in the Deutsches Ledermuseum. A picture can be found in Rex Lingwood's discussion of cuir bouilli here: http://makersgallery.com/rexlingwood/waterer.html -> download the PDF available there.

[Matchlock]

Right,


Here it is, ca. 1560-70.

I also attached another, contemporary sample in a private collection (the belt hook missing from the reverse).


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[Martin Moser]

Excellent details, thanks again, Michael :-)
It looks like the back plate is wood, covered with thin leather - is that correct? Is there also a wooden corpus to the front (the balbous) part? From what I read so far, it would seem that the front is leather alone, treated to be hard enough to not need any wooden or otherwise backing (i.e. cuir bouilli or similar).

Thanks,
Martin

[Matchlock]

Hi Martin,

Alas there is none of these Italian flasks in my collection so I cannot tell with certainty whether there is a wooden back plate underneath the hardened leather.

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[Marcus den toom]

Some pictures of similair pieces.
This link is a rich source of powder flask and maybe even more.

http://silverwolf.lviv.ua/forum/view...hp?f=25&t=5212

and this one as well

http://www.pinterest.com/scasocial/as-leatherwork/


http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/a...1-details.aspx



_______________
"Powder-flask
Unknown Artist / Maker
Italy and Balkan
c. 1550- c. 1575 and 19th century
c. 1550- c. 1575 (body)
1800 - 1899 (mounts)
Leather and copper alloy, tooled
Height: 19 cm
Weight: 0.28 kg
Label: '904' Blue-edged label"

http://silverwolf.lviv.ua/forum/view...hp?f=25&t=5212




_____________________
"Powder-flask
Unknown Artist / Maker
Italy
3rd quarter of 16th century
Leather and steel, embossed and tooled
Height: 18.4 cm
Weight: 0.355 kg"



___________________
"Powder-flask
Unknown Artist / Maker
Italy
3rd quarter of 16th century
Leather and steel, embossed and tooled
Height: 18.4 cm
Weight: 0.48 kg"



______________________
"Powder-flask
Unknown Artist / Maker
Italy
3rd quarter of 16th century
Leather and steel, embossed, incised and chiselled
Height: 17.7 cm
Weight: 0.445 kg"




___________________
"Powder-flask
Unknown Artist / Maker
Italy
3rd quarter of 16th century
Leather, steel and gold, embossed, tooled, blued and gilded
Height: 14.6 cm
Weight: 0.2 kg"



____________________
???

[Matchlock]

For details on bandoliers, please see also

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/editpo...tpost&p=167939

and

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=bandeliers


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[Martin Moser]

Thanks for posting, Marcus and Michael! It is amazing what can be done with leather and sad at the same time to think that many of these skills are lost to us now ...

[Matchlock]

Back to the roots of my thread: flasks for calivermen.

Here is a good sample, and one of the few that were obviously not made and engraved in Nuremberg; the top mount is hinged to fold out for easy refills, which is highly unusual.
It may be French and is dated 1597.
The style of engraving is very similar to that on the flask from post #23, which is attributed to Flanders, and certainly the template was the same in both cases.

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[Matchlock]

A horn body for a caliverman's flask, French, ca. 1590-1600, the central female figure meant as the impersonation of war and inscribed in Old French La Guere (sic!). the original iron mounts and the reverse frog hook all missing, the nozzle and bottom plate later horn replacements.
The engraving follows the identical pattern as the flask in the previous post.

m

[Matchlock]

Not a musketeer's flask, as the dealer thought, but that of a caliverman, ca. 1590-1600, in nicely patinated condition, and retaining some bluing on the iron mounts.
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[Matchlock]

A Nuremberg made and engraved flask of flattened cowhorn, ca. 1600, sold Hermann Historica, Munich, 18 Oct 2006.
This decoration is the well-known intertwined foliage that all Nurembeg workshops used as a pattern.
The blackened mounts finely convey a nice contrast to the white horn body which of course the artist originally intended. This is why a flask from this series with its iron mounts polished bright has lost all its charms.

m

[Matchlock]

Here is a caliverman's flask I photographed 30 years ago in the reserve collection of the St.-Annen-Museum Lübeck, Lower Saxony, Germany.
The obverse and small sides of the wooden body are profusely carved with scales.
Following the usual formal criteria, a date of 'ca. 1600 to early 17th century' would seem appropriate. However, a 'military' wheellock musket, the lock struck with the Suhl proof mark SVL and the octagonal barrel retaining its original bluing, and the whole gun datable to ca. 1640, features a stock carved in exactly the same manner. It is preserved in the reserve collection of the Gäubodenmuseum of Straubing, Lower Bavaria, and would go perfectly well with the flask stylistically. Thus I am prone to assign the same date to this flask, making it the latest of its kind known to me, from the 'heyday' of the horrible Thirty Years War.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

A very good Nuremberg made caliverman's flask, the flattened cow horn body engraved with a characteristic scene all'antica, probably depicting Heracles and the Nemeic lion, the reverse inscribed 'I. Collone WITELSBACH', spelled with a doubling tilde above the n and T respectively, and referring to its provenance, the former Straubing arsenal of the Dukes (German: Herzöge) of Wittelsbach.
The belt hook and spring loaded nozzle cap are both missing.

Please note the crisp and highly contrasted state of preservation of the engraving. It is this perfectly retained original condition that actually separates the wheat from the chaff when a piece is chosen to enter a collection!
Take a few minutes and search the engraved cow horn flasks posted in this thread, just concentrating on the craftsmanship of their engraving and their state of preservation!

I took these photographs 25 years ago in the reserve collection of the Gäubodenmuseum of the City of Straubing, Lower Bavaria.


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[Matchlock]

For exact definitions, please see my posts and attachments:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...341#post170341

m

[Matchlock]

For some of the finest caliverman's flasks in existence, see
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=19421