Victorian Hunting Silver Hip Flask with Armorial Engraving

• Armorial / Armourial - Bearing a coat of arms. Coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in in the 12th century, and by the 13th century, arms had spread beyond their initial battlefield use to become a flag or emblem for families in the higher social classes of Europe. They were inherited from one generation to the next. When a family crest is used on individual items of silver or furniture it is an indicator of the aristocratic standing of the family represented.
  
  Armorials were also used to decorate mass produced ceramic souvenir ware by such companies as Goss, Carlton & Shelley, and in these cases the coats of arms displayed were of boroughs and cities.
• Victorian Period - The Victorian period of furniture and decorative arts design covers the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers used and modified many historical styles such as Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others, although use of some styles, such as English Rococo and Gothic tended to dominate the furniture manufacture of the period.
  
  The Victorian period was preceded by the Regency and William IV periods, and followed by the Edwardian period, named for Edward VII (1841 ? 1910) who was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India for the brief period from 1901 until his death in 1910.
• Engraving - The method of decorating or creating inscriptions on silver and other metal objects by marking the surface with a sharp instrument such as a diamond point or rotating cutting wheel.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• flasks, hip and spirit - silver items 155
• other items, presentation and trophies - silver items 20
• silver table ornaments - sundry animals, birds and fish 78