English rifle accoutrements

[Mike C]

What accoutrements would an  early 19th Century English gentleman have carried with his late flint half stock rifle? Horn or flask? Priming? Bag, etc? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Mike C

[Joey R]

I would lean towards a flask type or a flattened type horn. Not humongous but large enough for at least 10 or 12 shots geared for large calibers. The bag maybe kind of Germanic/European? And lastly a strong English accent.☺️

[Clark Badgett]

An English gentleman probably wouldn’t have carried anything with his rifle on the hunt. That’s what he had a game keeper for. He probably wore while posing for the painting though.

[MuskratMike]

Clark is right his gun bearer not only carried his firearm but loaded it and handed it back to the shooter. If it was a matched set, the same applied just more work for the loader. These were mostly driven hunts.

[smylee grouch]

I'm thinking Tweed.  I was actually going to go shopping for a Flat cap and also need some ideas. 

[Clark Badgett]

I got some of the stiff tweed used to cover amplifiers with, maybe I'll make a bag from some. 

[Mike C]

Joey R, I'm not much good at an English accent. Maybe I'll just be a Yankee hunter that found a nice rifle on an English officer that didn't need it anymore.
Thank you all for your responses.
Mike C

[Joey R]

Well said my good man! Well said.

[Robby]

Mike, I'd like to know too. I was hoping for a lot of good stuff.
Robby

[Dutch Blacky]

Metal powder flasks have been made since about 1820 in Sheffield. So the english genteman or his game keeper probably would have used a flat horn.
If you look at english powder flasks you can see that the bags were not much different fron the ones used today.

[Mike C]

Thanks Dutch. I would have guessed metal flasks dated further back. I'd rather have a flat horn than a flask, anyway. I thought flasks were for liquids.
Mike C

[Dutch Blacky]

The industrial production of metal powder flasks started around 1820. Before this time some metal powder flasks have been made by craftsmen. Silver- and coppersmiths  were able to make the bodies of powder flasks all the time before the mass production started.
In the book of Marquiset, POIRES  A POUDRE there are some pictures of round metal powder flasks from the end of the XVIII century.

Until around 1800  most of the powder flasks have been made using horn.
But is is not easy to fix an exact date, when a flask was made  because most of the flasks or horns have no markings of the maker.


This might have bern made for a flintlock gun, because there is a  needle (for cleaning the touchhole???) on the wooden stopper





Very simple flat horn. I got no idea, when it was made.



This flask has a body made of copper and a head made of horn. Early flask? Or made in the end of the XIX century?

[Dutch Blacky]

Good morning Mike C.

Your question concerning metal powder flasks is really interesting and not so easy to answer.
 So I was looking for  more information.
It seems, that in Britain manufaturing of metal powder flasks just started in the 1790s, but mass produktion started around 1910 - 1820. The company of James Dixon was founded in 1804 (the company first produced whistles and trumpets) , but 1828 this company was not jet listed in Sheffield Directory as a making powder flasks. Thomas Sykes (Sykes Patent top) was a gunsmith and produced shot belts and powder flasks (for some time together with Mr. Frith). The company of Sykes and Son  was mentioned in 1817 as maker of leather powder flasks and military powder horns.  " Apparently between 1797 and 1817 (Directory datings) Sykes & Son or Thomas Sykes began to manufacture powder flasks  and before 1820 they became patentees of a particular type of powder flask" (see Rining, the powder flask book, page 115)


So I was wrong, when I wrote, that industrial metal powder flasks manufacturing began around 1820. This was just some years earlyer.