Keywords: Indian - Powder Flask - Walters 71419.jpg The powder flask also known as a priming flask was an essential firearm accessory and held the fine powder needed to make the gun fire Gunmakers in India during the Mughal era 1526-1858 specialized in carving ivory powder flasks with animal figures Often as these two examples the decoration consists of intertwined and composite creatures that seem to grow out of or attack one another One such menagerie on the right-hand flask includes a cheetah or lion chasing an antelope in the center and bucks antelopes lions birds a boar elephant and mongoose at the two ends Many of these animals were regularly hunted or used for hunts as with the elephant in Mughal India century 18 Early Modern ivory set with amber steel cm 6 2 16 2 2 5 accession number 71 419 40388 Max and Maurice Rosenheim date and mode of acquisition unknown Sale Sotheby's London May 9-11 1923 lot 304 Henry Walters Baltimore 1923 mode of acquisition unknown Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters 1923 place of origin India Walters Art Museum license Weapons in the Walters Art Museum Indian gunpowder flasks Mughal art in the Walters Art Museum Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review |