Powder Horn Top
Description
Dark brown wooden powder horn top handle. Bent screw at bottom, little dent at top of handle, couple of small scrapes. There is some debate over the likely purpose of this wooden stopper. Early interpretations refer to the object as a ‘vent stopper’ used to plug the vent hole in the ship’s great guns. However, it is both the wrong shape and physically too large for such a purpose. In addition, Royal Navy Bill Books for the period state that cork was acquired to ‘stop’ the vents in the guns. The most favourable alternative view is that the object is a stopper from a powder horn. The powder horn was used to store gunpowder for troops so that it could be kept dry aboard a ship. While the tip of a horn could be very ornate and fitted with a mechanism to provide control when applying powder to the ‘touch hole,’ the wide end was usually covered very simply with a central plug such as this to provide a hole for refilling.
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Object Detail
Width: 40mm
Depth: 31mm (1 1/4")