A large Mughal ivory priming flask, India, 17th century

By repute, Honnens de Lichtenberg family

Philippe Missillier Collection no.166C

This powder horn or priming flask, belongs to a group of ivory powder horns of slender curved shape characterised by zoomorphic decoration of multiple animals carved in relief on the body. A seventeenth century dating for this group is supported by two examples in the Historisches Museum, Dresden that were in the collection of Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony in 1658 (Robert Skelton (ed.), The Indian Heritage, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, p.135, no.439).

Within the broad characterisation there is a wide-ranging variety of animals and birds, including elephants, lion, camels, antelope, monkeys, rams, hares and buffalo. Lions are shown attacking buffalo and antelope on some pieces, while on others the animals walk or lie peacefully in a bucolic landscape represented by plants. A common factor is that many are animals of the hunt. A few depict human figures (including one of the pieces in Dresden). The inspiration may come from paintings of animals formed as composites of multiple creatures, or from Mughal paintings of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century with hunting scenes where multiple animals are shown closely packed together. Similar groups of animals appear on Mughal carpets of the same period (Okada 2000, p.63).

The powder horns are made in two approximately equal parts, joined and secured with ivory pins. The nozzle is often formed of a buffalo head, with the aperture closed by a levered spring mechanism, attached to the body of the powder horn at the join of the two halves. Although an early survey of the group was written as long ago as 1942 (Born 1942), it is only recently that a more comprehensive attempt at a catalogue has been attempted (Clais 2021).

A small group of closely comparable ivory priming flasks are in the National Museum of Denmark (inv. nos.Db 62-66, Kjeld von Folsach et al., Fighting, Hunting, Impressing: Arms and Armour from the Islamic World 1500-1850, Copenhagen, The David Collection, 2021, pp.214-8), one of which is fitted with an enamelled gold mechanism likely made by the goldsmith Henrik Langmack for the Danish prince-elect Christian (1603-47) alongside a pair of sword belts and a pair of spurs (Kjeld von Folsach et al., 2021, p.214). Two of these appear in early inventories, one for 1690 and another for 1737 (R. Skelton (ed.), op.cit., p.135, no.440).