Powder flask

Intricately decorated with a technique known as piqué work, this powder flask is more an expensive jewel than a practical container. Probably made for a lady, it was once owned by the infamous collector and dealer, Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890). The flask was displayed by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in a vitrine in his Tower Drawing Room, now Baron's Room, along with other treasures.

Small powder flasks like this were used to store the fine grains used to trigger the firing mechanism on early firearms. Since the development of relatively light wheel-locks and flint-locks during the 16th century, guns and their accessories were highly decorated to demonstrate the status and wealth of the owner, as well as the maker's skill. Designs in horn and ivory were often inlaid into wooden gunstocks.

The lace-like scrolls, leaves and dragonflies on this flask were made using a related inlay technique called piqué. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, French craftsmen developed this way of inserting tiny gold or silver pins into the shells of Hawksbill sea turtles, known as tortoiseshell. Many small decorative objects were made using this technique. The airy details made in this way on the flask set off the solid plaques of engraved mother-of-pearl and gold.

Probably used by a lady to accessorise her small-calibre hunting gun, the imagery on these plaques may be indicative of her tastes. A turbaned-horseman alludes to the fashion for Oriental imagery, while an armed woman, perhaps Diana, gives classical precedent for female weaponry. It is the kind of beautifully decorated object that Spitzer specialised in collecting as well as forging, although this piece is thought to be entirely genuine. More details about Spitzer can be found in the entries for accession numbers 866.1 and 3467.

Ferdinand is known to have purchased several highly-decorated firearms from the sale of Spitzer's collection in 1895 (now British Museum WB.7, WB.8, WB.9, WB.12, see Cordera (2014), pp. 390-1 for sale details). Several pieces of arms and armour at Waddesdon Manor were also included in the 1895 sale, but because of the lack of information about the arms displayed in the Bachelors' Wing Corridor in the 1899 inventory, it is not known whether they were acquired by Ferdinand or his sister Alice. Luckily the downstairs vitrine with gold boxes and other treasures in Ferdinand's sitting room was described in full detail, so we know he must have acquired this powder flask after the Spitzer 1895 sale and before his death in 1898.

Phillippa Plock, 2015