1596, PROBABLY SAXON OR BOHEMIAN

Details

A PEWTER-MOUNTED ENAMELLED GLASS DATED 'PISTOL' FLASK (SCHERZGEFÄSS)
1596, PROBABLY SAXON OR BOHEMIAN
In the form of a wheel-lock pistol, applied with flowerhead prunts to the reverse and handle terminal and a wheel-lock, painted in white enamel hightened in dark-brown, the barrel dated 1596, the mount with a screw cover
12 5/8 in. (32 cm.) long

Provenance

Max Strauss Collection, Vienna.
The Krug Collection; Sotheby's, London, 7 December 1981, lot 256.

Literature

Brigitte von Klesse, Glassammlung Helfried Krug, Bonn, 1973, Vol. II, pp. 140-1, no. 519.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

See Brigitte Klesse and Axel von Saldern, 500 Jahre Glaskunst Sammlung Biemann, Zürich, 1978, p. 318, no. 274B for a clear-glass example enamelled with the Electoral arms of Saxony. The present flask (like the 1610 blue-glass example) is accurately enamelled with the wheel-lock mechanism, the spring-loaded dog, the wheel, the pan cover, even the safety catch are all recorded in detail.

The wheel-lock pistol was invented in Europe in about 1500 and was a popular design throughout the 16th century, eventually being superseded by the snaphance and flintlock mechanism of the late 16th and 17th centuries.

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