An especially fine gutta percha/hard rubber powder flask.  Examples of such flasks are found in Ray Riling’s “The Powder Flask Book” (published 1953) on pages 402 and 403.  The entire flask measures 5” long and 2” across at the body.  The gutta percha is chocolate colored and in excellent, smooth condition with visible seam lines.  The brass screw-off top has a dark patina.  It is marked within a scroll “Frary Benham & Co.” identical to the one cataloged by Ray Riling as #46 in his section on flask tops.  According to Riling, such hard rubber flasks were in production by Goodyear beginning in 1851.  Frary Benham of Connecticut was in business in the early 1850s until acquired by American Flask and Cap Company.  The underside of the flask top is dark with light corrosion from gunpowder storage.  Brass threading, thumb spring and spout are in excellent, functioning condition.  Such a flask would likely accompany a pre-Civil War percussion pistol.  [JC]

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