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.
c. 1570
Bronze, gold, antler and steel, embossed, chiselled and gilded
A1292
Images and text © Wallace Collection, 2017
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