{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O151870"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O151870/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FC2499/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011FC2499/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011FC2499","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FC2500","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O151870/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O151870","accessionNumber":"72-1865","objectType":"Priming flask","titles":[{"title":"Powder flask with two boys clasping a shell","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is a powder priming flask carved in the form of a ribbed shell, two which two naked Cupids are clasping. Its style suggests it is Netherlandish, and dates from the mid-seventeenth century. \nPowder flasks or horns are portable containers of wood, horn, metal, leather or ceramic used to hold the priming powder or gunpowder for firearms. They normally terminated in a metal nozzle which also served as a powder measure, closed by a plug or spring cap, and are often highly decorated.\r\nGunpowder began to be transported in pouches or more rigid containers at about the same date as the introduction of hand-held firearms in the fifteenth century. Such flask might have a military purpose, or be used for hunting. The very decorative pieces were above all a singn of rank, and at the same time aesthetic objects in their own right, and probably never actually functioned as containers for gunpowder.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Priming flask, carved in the form of a shell to which cling two Cupids. Ivory with metal mounts. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"metal","id":"AAT10900"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved ivory with metal mounting","categories":[{"text":"Arms & Armour","id":"THES48992"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"},{"text":"Sport","id":"THES48893"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2011FC2499","2011FC2500"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"023","id":"THES395642"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Priming flask","id":""}],[{"text":"Powder flask","id":"AAT204665"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Netherlands","id":"x29020"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1650","earliest":"1645-01-01","latest":"1654-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"8.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"whole","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"6.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"ivory alone","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This object was purchased in 1865 for £10 8s., at a posthumous sale of the collection of James Alexandre, Compte de Pourtalès (the Pourtalès Collection), held at his <i>hôtel</i>, rue Tronchet, no 7, Paris, 6 March 1865, p. 216, lot 1529. Many Italian art objects were being sold there as a result of their flooding the market after the Napolenic wars.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Priming flask, ivory with metal mounts, in the form of two boys clasping a shell, Netherlandish, ca. 1650","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1865. <font -u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1.</font> London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 34"},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H., <u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory</u>. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929","id":"AUTH329986"},"details":"p.74","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Maskell, W. <u>A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum</u>, London, 1872","id":"AUTH330219"},"details":"p. 41","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013","id":"AUTH329728"},"details":"p. 398","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Two boys are clasping a shell.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Cupid","id":"N31"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"shell","id":"x39877"},{"text":"boys","id":"AAT247598"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["72-1865"],"accessionNumberNum":"72","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1865,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-26","recordCreationDate":"2008-04-01","availableToBook":true}}