Featured More about my carved coconut flask.

Discussion in 'Antique Discussion' started by afantiques, Aug 22, 2015.

  1. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    While packing up the coconut for going to the auction, I took a better look at it and found several details that make it seem a bit more hopeful for a good result.

    I don't know how I missed it, but the mouth of the flask has a beast face above the opening.

    1-P1040720.JPG

    Hard to tell what if anything it is suppoed to be.

    One side has an oval cartouche with a female seated figure waving a flag, hat or branches. Vaugely like the Britannia figure.
    1-P1040721.JPG

    Costume looks a bit 18th C.to me.

    On the other side there is a crowned fleur de lys, or possibly PoW feathers.

    1-P1040722.JPG

    Plants on the other sides with two similar 'plaques' with hole like marks.

    1-P1040723.JPG

    1-P1040724.JPG

    and the general view from when I first look at it and missed most of the details.

    1-P1030847.JPG

    Still looking for opinions as to date and interpretation of the newly revealed details.
     
  2. rhiwfield

    rhiwfield Well-Known Member

    The animal above the mouth looks a bit like 2 displaying peacocks facing each other
     
  3. Bakersgma

    Bakersgma Well-Known Member

    Definitely feathered, but there's a third "head" in between the two peacocks?

    The details are really terrific, AF!
     
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  4. springfld.arsenal

    springfld.arsenal Store: http://www.springfieldarsenal.net/

    Made for use as a sort of canteen. The two plaque areas were left higher than carved areas because that's where the carrying strap attached. Haitian?
     
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  5. Pat P

    Pat P Well-Known Member

    The carving is really beautiful. I'm curious about the reddish area near the opening? Is it actually translucent like it looks in the photo? I didn't know a coconut shell could be translunt or look that shiny.

    It looks to me like the carving near the opening is a single bird, though oddly it's missing its head...

    upload_2015-8-22_12-42-20.jpeg
     
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  6. Ladybranch

    Ladybranch Well-Known Member

    Af, you've "...got a lovely bunch of coconuts."Welll.... really 1 of the lovely bunch. Love this coconut! What a find.


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I've_Got_a_Lovely_Bunch_of_Coconuts

    I agree, I also see 3 heads.

    --- Susan
     
  7. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    I had not noticed that detail, the eyes seem to have been outlined with red paint.

    1-P1040725.JPG

    1-P1040726.JPG
     
  8. 42Skeezix

    42Skeezix Moderator Moderator

  9. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    I'm not sure that's a coconut ??
    But it is special as all get out !!!!
     
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  10. verybrad

    verybrad Well-Known Member

    You have a very nice old coconut. Coconut carving goes back hundreds of years and were often done by seafarers as presents to bring home. Much of what you see come from the Carribbean regions, with later 19th Century ones being traced back to Mexican prisons. I believe yours to be late 18th century or early 19th century in origin. and not one of the more typically seen Mexican versions.
     
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  11. DragonflyWink

    DragonflyWink Well-Known Member

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  12. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    They'd need Royalist sympathies if they were carving it after the French Revolution
     
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  13. DragonflyWink

    DragonflyWink Well-Known Member

    Was thinking 'Bourbon Restoration' era, 1814-30 - but really, just a guess on my part...

    ~Cheryl
     
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  14. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    well......now i'm sure !:oops:
     
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  15. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    Good a guess as any, I'd say. What a disaster that was.
     
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  16. GaleriaGila

    GaleriaGila Hola, y'all!

    YESSSSSSS, VeryBrad! I once saw a collection of these carved flasks... it included the typical Mexican ones and then a few special ones carved by sailors in who-knows-what-desperate-straits (pun! straits!)... as I recall, the elements of the carvings told the carver's story. They had some amazing documentation and provenance. I LOVE this thing!
     
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  17. Linda Oliver

    Linda Oliver New Member

     
  18. Linda Oliver

    Linda Oliver New Member

    Just found this website and saw your coconut. I collect them and they are considered whaling art. They are very difficult to find, and valuable. While onboard whaling ships, the whalers Would carve coconuts as a past time, from coconuts they picked up when anchoring in tropical areas that had coconut trees.

    The mouth, at the end when viewing the coconut, is a symbol of the four winds blowing the ships to see. Because there are French Fluer de Lís, The person The carved it was probably from France or had French origins. It probably was done late 18th to early 19th century.
    I believe it might’ve been a powder flask, especially if the insert into the mouth is brass. It should have two little brass eye screws That would’ve held a probably, leather, strap

    To find more information about carved Coconuts, you can research it online, if you include a description as WHALING ART, Carved coconuts.
    There are examples in Whaling museums.

    I have seen more primitive ones and much more detailed refind examples. Yours is somewhere in the middle. The more refined, polished, engraved looking workmanship bring the highest price. Hope that helps.
     
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  19. bercrystal

    bercrystal Well-Known Member

    @Linda Oliver - Hi Linda & welcome to the forum!! :happy::happy::happy:

    Since AF started this thread back in 2015 the coconut flask has long gone on to its new forever home. Don't worry about resurrecting old threads, it happens all the time. ;):p:p :happy:

    @afantiques - I will "page" AF so that he might see the new information you posted.
     
    kyratango likes this.
  20. Marie Forjan

    Marie Forjan Well-Known Member

    I didn't see this thread when it first was around, I found it fascinating!
     
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