Black Jacks
‘Black Jacks’, ‘Bombards’ and a small jug, wet-moulded in heavy hide, 17th to 19th century.
Leather vessels of this kind are a particularly English tradition.
The ‘bombard’ marked CH is from Chelsea Hospital. Wet-moulded in hide and lined with pitch.
CH painted in white and marked – 1818
The ‘bombard’ to the left of CH has the inscription “With good British beer; in a good British hide; Well keep out the devil; whatever betide”
Leather vessels of this kind are a particularly English tradition.
The ‘black jack’ of Medieval England was used throughout society
‘Jack’ is a popular word with a host of divergent meanings. It was used for the cuir bouilli drinking vessel,
the ‘black jack’: from the 14th century onward there are frequent references to the jack, jaque or jack-of-defence
as the armour of the common soldier, and perhaps it was used of such various garments as the stuffed and
quilted gambeson, the ‘jakke stuffyd with horne’.
The Museum has the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of leather vessels.