Lot Essay
For two priming-flasks of related type see Claude Blair, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Arms, Armour and Base-metalwork, 1974, Cat. Nos.152 and 153.
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LATE 16TH CENTURY
Details
A RARE SOUTH GERMAN GILT-BRONZE PRIMING-FLASK, PROBABLY AUGSBURG
Late 16th Century
With flask-shaped body of rectangular section with slightly convex front, moulded rectangular top, tapering nozzle and spring cut-off, decorated over the full surface of the sides with a running band of foliage and small cartouches filled with demon masks, set between beaded borders and all cast in very low relief, the front finely engraved with a Mannerist design in the style of Etienne Delaune, involving the figure of Mars, grotesque masks and a pair of clerics represented as grotesques all within a scheme of strapwork and scrolls, inset with a relief medallion depicting a figural group from either Antiquity or Mythology, and fitted with a pair of rings at the sides.
5¾in (14.7cm)
Late 16
With flask-shaped body of rectangular section with slightly convex front, moulded rectangular top, tapering nozzle and spring cut-off, decorated over the full surface of the sides with a running band of foliage and small cartouches filled with demon masks, set between beaded borders and all cast in very low relief, the front finely engraved with a Mannerist design in the style of Etienne Delaune, involving the figure of Mars, grotesque masks and a pair of clerics represented as grotesques all within a scheme of strapwork and scrolls, inset with a relief medallion depicting a figural group from either Antiquity or Mythology, and fitted with a pair of rings at the sides.
5¾
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium