Powder-flask
Unknown Artist
Powder-flask, of gilt bronze shaped like an antler, with two branches. The front decorated with an animated scene of Roman soldiers storming a castle, cast in relief and gilt; the back is engraved with the crossed timbers and briquet of Burgundy; the neck is decorated with bands of cast scrollwork and grotesque animals, and the ends of the branches at the base are stopped with circular caps each bearing a child's head in high relief. Funnel with spring-cap, the cut-off of steel ending in a scroll; four rings (one broken) for suspension. The hook for the belt or port-flask is missing.
German (Augsburg), about 1570.
L' Art Ancien IX, 1014.
Provenance: Frédéric Spitzer.
A similar flask is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (no. 2203-1855). Compare also Fischer sales: Zurich, 7-8 May 1935, lot 199, pl. 28 and Lucerne (v. Kaunitz), 1935, lot 154. These flasks are decorated with the same hunting scene as A1293.