Powder Flask (c. 1620–50): Art, History and Details

Powder Flask (c. 1620–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Powder flasks are small, portable containers designed to hold gunpowder. From the 1400s to the 1800s, powder flasks were indispensable for charging and priming firearms of all types. Without powder flasks firearms were of little use to their owners. Many highly decorated flasks rank as works of art.

Object facts

• Title: Powder Flask
• Date: c. 1620–50
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: walnut inlaid with ivory decoration; turned steel funnel with spring cap
• Dimensions: Diameter: 12.1 cm (4 3/4 in.); Overall: 17.2 cm (6 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.60

A detail from the museum

Powder flasks could take a variety of forms and the materials of construction varied greatly; many survive because of their allure as fine decorative objects.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.