{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O97354"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O97354/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MM9358/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MM9358/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MM9358","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O97354/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O97354","accessionNumber":"2246B-1855","objectType":"Powder flask","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This powder flask was used to carry gunpowder.  A measured quantity of powder was drawn off by using the spring-loaded pivoting cap on the nozzle.\r\n\r\nFirearms became more and more sophisticated during the 16th-century but still required a number of accessories to load and operate them. The main charge, placed in the barrel with the shot, was carried in the powder flask. Smaller priming flasks contained fine-grain powder for priming the pans of wheel-lock firearms. Flasks were attached to a bandolier, a type of sling worn over the shoulder or around the waist, from which hung the various accessories required for a weapon including spanners for the mechanism, measured charges, powder flasks and priming flasks.\r\n\r\nArms and armour are rarely associated with art. However, they were influenced by the same design sources as other art forms including architecture, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, stained glass and ceramics. These sources had to be adapted to awkwardly shaped devices required to perform complicated technical functions. Armour and weapons were collected as works of art as much as military tools.\r\n\r\nLike the pistols and guns that accompanied them, decorated flasks were costly items. Inlaid firearms and flasks reflected the owners' status and were kept as much for display as for use. Daggers, firearms, gunpowder flasks and stirrups worn with the most expensive clothing projected an image of the fashionable man-at-arms. The most finely crafted items were worn as working jewellery.","physicalDescription":"Globular shaped wooden powder flask, inlaid with mother of pearl with engraved brass mounts","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"mother-of-pearl","id":"AAT11835"},{"text":"brass","id":"AAT10946"}],"techniques":[{"text":"inlay(process)","id":"AAT53850"},{"text":"engraving (incising)","id":"AAT53829"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wood, inlaid with mother of pearl with engraved brass","categories":[{"text":"Arms & Armour","id":"THES48992"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Fashion","id":"THES48957"},{"text":"Tools & Equipment","id":"THES48883"},{"text":"Death","id":"THES48970"},{"text":"Accessories","id":"THES48998"},{"text":"Firearms","id":"THES49007"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2020MM9358"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"A","id":"THES386317"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Powder flask","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Poland","id":"x29083"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"south-west, possibly"},{"place":{"text":"Czech Republic","id":"x29585"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"possibly"}],"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":"11.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"6.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"For a 'Tschinke' or wheel lock birding rifle\r\n\r\nProvenance\r\n\r\nRalph Bernal (1783-1854) was a renowned collector and objects from his collection are now in museums across the world, including the V&A. He was born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish descent, but was baptised into the Christian religion at the age of 22. Bernal studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and subsequently became a prominent Whig politician. He built a reputation for himself as a man of taste and culture through the collection he amassed and later in life he became the president of the British Archaeological Society. Yet the main source of income which enabled him to do this was the profits from enslaved labour.\r\n\r\nIn 1811, Bernal inherited three sugar plantations in Jamaica, where over 500 people were eventually enslaved. Almost immediately, he began collecting works of art and antiquities. After the emancipation of those enslaved in the British Caribbean in the 1830s, made possible in part by acts of their own resistance, Bernal was awarded compensation of more than £11,450 (equivalent to over £1.5 million today). This was for the loss of 564 people enslaved on Bernal’s estates who were classed by the British government as his ‘property'. They included people like Antora, and her son Edward, who in August 1834 was around five years old (The National Archives, T 71/49). Receiving the money appears to have led to an escalation of Bernal's collecting.\r\n\r\nWhen Bernal died in 1855, he was celebrated for 'the perfection of his taste, as well as the extent of his knowledge' (Christie and Manson, 1855). His collection was dispersed in a major auction during which the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, which later became the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), was the biggest single buyer.\r\n","historicalContext":"Teschen in Silesia on the Polish / Czech Republic border","briefDescription":"Globular wooden powder flask, inlaid with mother of pearl with engraved brass mounts, Silesia (Teschen), ca. 1650","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"Made in Teschen, Silesia (historic regions)","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["2246B-1855"],"accessionNumberNum":"2246","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1855,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-01","recordCreationDate":"2004-03-26","availableToBook":false}}