CIRCA 1670-90

Details

AN EXCEPTIONAL SOUTH GERMAN CARVED WOOD POWDER-FLASK
Circa 1670-90
With circular wooden body formed in two parts around a central hole, carved with a boar and a stag entwined in a complex spiral of combat with six hounds, the outer face in high relief, in part carved in the round, the inner face with the lower bodies of three of the hounds emerging from the central void, retaining much of its original painted naturalistic colour throughout, with details picked-out in red, white and gilding, fitted with silver cruciform top, the nozzle with turn-off cap, and an early green plaited and tasselled suspension cord attached by three silver rings.
6 7/8in (17.5cm)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

In addition to the zoomorphic gunstocks and powder-flasks signed by the renowned carver Michael Maucher (1645-1701, Schwäbisch-Gmünd and latterly Würzburg), others are directly attributable to Vienna; their popularity would appear to be prevalent throughout Southern Germany and spanning the period 1665-1700.

See Angelika Ehmer, Die Maucher, 1992.

For a further discussion of flasks of this type see Claude Blair, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Arms, Armour and Base-metalwork, 1974, pp. 395-400.

Cf. a wheel-lock sporting rifle with carved painted stock, Prague, dated 1665, preserved in the Deutsches Jagdmuseum, Munich, 1977 catalogue, No.2462, p.79

More from Antique Arms and Armour from the Collection of Dr. & Mrs. Jerome Zwanger

View All