Powder Flask (c. 1680): Art, History and Details

Powder Flask (c. 1680) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Johann Michael Maucher (German, 1645–1701).

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. 1680
• Creator attribution: Johann Michael Maucher (German, 1645–1701)
• Culture: German, Swabian, Gmünd, 17th century
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: boxwood with design of stag and hounds carved in high relief; steel funnel, mounts, springcatch
• Dimensions: Diameter: 13.3 cm (5 1/4 in.); Overall: 14.3 cm (5 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1887

A detail from the museum

Johann Michael Maucher was the most famous member of a Schwabian family of ivory, wood, and amber carvers.

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: The 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.