Gun powder flask reserve

Antique gunpowder reserve in engraved and embossed iron, with winding spring charge at its nozzle. This work, of exquisite craft, is part of that range of firing accessories usually carried following soldiers and military forces, armed with guns and rifles as essentials for the use of firearms.

The gunpowder reserve took the place of primary importance during the seventeenth century as, precisely then, firearms became of fundamental importance both in the battlefields and in hunting teams, significantly improving lethality and accuracy in long-range shooting.

The triangular shape, together with the fretwork iron decoration with masks and cornucopias on its frontal part, embellished by the chromatic separation of the red velvet lining, places the production of the gun powder flask in those shops active in Tuscany, between the end of the sixteenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth century.

The coat of arms, depicted in the center of this work, is a crucial detail to chronologically catalog it and place it within the armory of the family which got it.  Their coat of arms represents two wolves passant and pertains to the Cosatti family.

A branch of the Cosatti family, which was of Latium origin, moved to Siena at the end of the sixteenth century, being inscribed in the Golden Book of the Noble and Notable Families of the city 1612, as evicted from the documents in the Sienese historical archive.

This work is well-preserved and represents an essential addition to the catalog of craftworks created in Tuscany in the late sixteenth century.