Feldflasche

This leather bottle was first listed in the inventory of the estate of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, compiled after his death in 1596. It was displayed on the first shelf of the seventeenth cupboard in his Kunstkammer at Ambras Castle near Innsbruck, the ‘various objects cupboard’ (variokasten), together with other Turkish artefacts: ‘A Turkish bottle, covered in red leather, with sophisticated work in leather in many different colours embroidered on it’ (Ain Turggische flaschen, mit rot leder uberzogen, mit suptiller arbait von leder allerlai farben darauf gestept). The 1788 inventory is even more detailed, making the identification straightforward: ‘A leather bottle, its red ground delicately covered with pierced blue-and-white leather, with a red silk strap’ (Eine lederne Flasche, roth im Grunde und mit durchbrochenen blauen und weisen leather zierlich überzogen, mit einer rothseidenen Tragschnür).

The oval bottle is tapered at the top and ends in an elongated neck. It is made of differently coloured leather, and the red ground on both sides is decorated with grey-blue moresques and stylized white flowers. Gold-thread embroidery creates the illusion of pearls. The fastidiously turned horn stopper has an ivory tip. Note also the small spout covered with red leather that has its own tiny ivory stopper.

Such bottles came to Europe as diplomatic gifts from the Sublime Porte. In 1581, Sultan Murad III sent such a bottle to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague (un fiasco di cuoio lavorato; ‘a worked leather flask’), together with an invitation to attend the festivities to mark his son’s circumcision. We know this because the Venetian ambassador Alberto Badoer reported it to Doge Nicolò da Ponte in a letter dated 12 September 1581. Rudolf II replied to this diplomatic gesture by dispatching a chain and a number of goblets valued at 4,000 guilders.