Powder flask
Exceptional for the design and execution of its ornamentation, this flask belongs to a small group carved by an anonymous French Renaissance artist. The flask occupies a special place in the group, as it is one of only two examples decorated with a biblical subject, and the only one to feature a royal cypher––that of Charles IX of France (1550–1574, reigned from 1560). The flask establishes that the artist was thus working in the ambit of the royal court.