Featured What am I looking at??

What am I looking at??

It clearly holds a fluid so

Baby bottle?
Ladies water bottle?
Decanter of some kind?

Suggestions as to
What
Where
When
Would be most useful

Data
17cm Diameter
0.21Kg

Cheers
Stephen

 

It's an Indian style, 19th century, powder horn, for holding gun powder.

 

Definitely not for the baby then. Might explain why bidders were so interested in the lot this came in.

 

I found another example to share with you. An Indian cloth-covered powder horn (Barutdan), 18th century, Nautilus-shaped wooden body, covered entirely with florally embroidered felt. Carved spout and stopper of ivory, two iron carrying rings (with flash rust). Width 19 cm. Similar pieces are exhibited in the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad.

 

Thanks for that. I note that most of these cloth covered nautilus shell style India powder flasks seem to be in museums. Mine seems to have a strap that has machine stitching so it probably could not be earlier than about 1860 in date assuming the strap was original. Also curious about those fragile discs are. They seem to be a metal like coating over thin frosty clear material. Will look closer tomorrow.

 

Or at the very least the strap may be a later addition to the powder horn.

As for the discs, it's rather hard to say from a photo... They don't seem to be metal. They look either transparent or translucent with a coloured opauqe coating over them as there are sections where we can see the coating missing and can see through the disc.

 

You have me curious about the discs. You could call them sequins, which have a long history. They were usually made of metal until plastics were introduced. But these on the powder horn do look like they are painted or gilded on top of a translucent material. One possibility for a pre-plastic translucent material would be thin slivers of horn. There is also the possibility of an early celluloid base. If there is a fragment you are willing to sacrifice, you could try a tiny burn test. Celluloid would be expected to burn vigorously, while horn would burn slowly, if at all, and would smell like burnt hair. I normally would not suggest it, but as it could be a significant clue to dating it might be worth the experiment.

 

Tortoiseshell also comes to mind for the paillettes.

 

Be very careful of the discs!. I had a necklace with what looked like metal discs on it and I asked advise about cleaning and was advised that a gentle wash wouldn't hurt. Well they dissolved into a gluey mess . I didn't know gelatin sequins even existed before then and I would have laid money they were metal. Worked out for the best though as the necklace was far more stunning without them fortunately.

 

Gelatin sequins would be a real surprise on this powder horn. They did not appear until the 1930s. Cellulose nitrate plastics like celluloid became available in the 2nd half of the 19th century. But unexpected things do happen.

 

I'm kinda reluctant to destroy bits of it to get a date that would only be a maybe date but I did turn it upside down and give it a thump to see if there was any gunpowder left. Out popped a large 3-4mm x 2-3mm blackish chunk that might be gunpowder. Again, reluctant to light it to test and will send it to the new owner and maybe one day a chemical analysis can be done to localise and date it.

 

Good to know this wouldn't be at risk from disc disintergration!!