IS THIS A PERSIAN POWDER FLASK ?

rickystl · 5th May 2018, 05:45 PM

LOL!!! Well, there's those fish again. LOL

I also believe these small containers - with SCREW caps - were made to carry something other than priming powder. It would simply be inconvienant and take too long unscewing a cap versus simply pulling out a plug or pushing on a lever to get access to the powder.
While screw style plugs are not unknown, they only seem to appear on European styled powder horns - for sporting purposes. And even then, they are seldom encountered unless made sometime during the 20th Century.
So I think the originally posted flask above falls into the same catagory as the fish shaped flasks posted by Kubur and Corrado. And if brass, probably of Indian origin.

As a comparison, here is a fish shaped, painted wood flask that does look old. I picked this up from Oriental Arms. Artzi says it's likely of South Indian origin. I ran a long Q-Tip through the flask mouth, and rubbing around produced a small evidence of black powder. So I think this one was used for priming a matchlock of some type. Notice the mouth of the flask was made for a plug, now missing.

Still, I like the design of the flask originally posted. Would clean up very nice.

Rick

5th May 2018, 05:45 PM	#14
rickystl Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: St. Louis, MO area. Posts: 1,633	LOL!!! Well, there's those fish again. LOL I also believe these small containers - with SCREW caps - were made to carry something other than priming powder. It would simply be inconvienant and take too long unscewing a cap versus simply pulling out a plug or pushing on a lever to get access to the powder. While screw style plugs are not unknown, they only seem to appear on European styled powder horns - for sporting purposes. And even then, they are seldom encountered unless made sometime during the 20th Century. So I think the originally posted flask above falls into the same catagory as the fish shaped flasks posted by Kubur and Corrado. And if brass, probably of Indian origin. As a comparison, here is a fish shaped, painted wood flask that does look old. I picked this up from Oriental Arms. Artzi says it's likely of South Indian origin. I ran a long Q-Tip through the flask mouth, and rubbing around produced a small evidence of black powder. So I think this one was used for priming a matchlock of some type. Notice the mouth of the flask was made for a plug, now missing. Still, I like the design of the flask originally posted. Would clean up very nice. Rick Attached Images