…; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-945

Three round earthenware pots with a narrow neck.

Only one pot (NG-MC-945-C) has its original three handles. The second pot (NG-MC-945-B) had three broken handles. The three vertical handles of the third pot have broken off neatly and are lost. This pot (NG-MC-945-A) still contains the dried contents of its original incendiary mixture. All three pots have a cork stopper.

The pots were found in 1857 in a fissure in the town wall of Flushing.¹¹‘Bijdrage over de zoogenoemde vuurpotten, ook wel bekend onder den naam van storm- en stankpotten’, Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen (1857), no. 2, pp. 337-50; HNA 2.12.01 Min. Marine, Exh. 24/4/1857 N21, 1/5/1857 N21, 15/6/1857 N32, 20/6/1857 N82, 5/11/1857 N6. Their age can only be estimated. They contained a mixture of chemicals and other substances, which was analysed at the time by chemist B. Flander and consisted of finely chopped Spanish pepper, charcoal, tar, antimony, asafoetida and saltpetre or gunpowder.²²‘Bijdrage over de zoogenoemde vuurpotten, ook wel bekend onder den naam van storm- en stankpotten’, Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen (1857), no. 2, pp. 337-50, esp. pp. 339-40. In total twenty-five pots were found, both in the towns of Flushing and Veere.³³‘Bijdrage over de zoogenoemde vuurpotten, ook wel bekend onder den naam van storm- en stankpotten’, Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen (1857), no. 2, pp. 337-50, esp. p. 340. Obreen only mentions three pots,⁴⁴J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089 , no. 945. however. Three other pots of a similar design, but possibly from Veere, also came to the museum and are now listed as NG-NM-5985-A, NG-NM-5985-B and NG-NM-5985-C.⁵⁵One of these second group of pots, NG-NM-5985-A, carries a former inventory label with the number 945 which has added considerably to the confusion whether the Department of the Navy intended to send six or just the three pots found at Flushing to the museum. The Veere connection for the second group is based on the fact that these pots are still intact, look new and unused, whereas the three pots found in Flushing are broken, contain traces of the original incendiary mixture and have cork stoppers.

The contents resembled that of the ‘stench pots’ or ‘fire pots’ described in seventeenth-century works on ammunition:⁶⁶Willem Claesz (van Utrecht), Arithmetische en geometrische practijcke der bosschieterye … , Amsterdam 1675, pp. 124-26; G. van der Tollen, Het nieuwe licht der bosschieterye, zynde een volkomen onderwysinge van het konstapelschap, so ter zee als te lande ..., Amsterdam 1699, pp. 378-83. their use was therefore established. They were used as a type of hand grenade, but thrown by means of ropes attached to the handles. The contents were ignited with a fuse. The contents could either be an incendiary or a substance producing toxic fumes and smoke, even temporarily blinding the enemy.

Willem Claesz (van Utrecht), Arithmetische en geometrische practijcke der bosschieterye … , Amsterdam 1675, pp. 124-26; G. van der Tollen, Het nieuwe licht der bosschieterye, zynde een volkomen onderwysinge van het konstapelschap, so ter zee als te lande... , Amsterdam 1699; ‘Bijdrage over de zoogenoemde vuurpotten, ook wel bekend onder den naam van storm- en stankpotten’, Verhandelingen en berigten betrekkelijk het zeewezen (1857), no. 2, pp. 337-50; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089 , no. 945; J.P. Puype, ‘Scheepswapens uit de tijd van Michiel de Ruyter’, De wapenverzamelaar 14 (1976), pp. 3-25, pp. 20-21

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Three Fire Pots, Netherlands, 1550 - 1700', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200682405